China is the world’s most populous country, with more than 1.4 billion inhabitants. It has the second largest economy in the world and is responsible for a large share of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions (Statista). After decades of strong economic growth, China is now an upper-middle income country. The country is already experiencing the negative impacts of climate change, especially in agriculture, forestry and water resources.      

The country has taken important steps towards climate action. In June 2015, China submitted its first nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the UNFCCC. China then ratified the Paris Agreement at a high-profile joint ceremony with the USA in September 2016. This was an important symbolic moment, with the world’s two largest emitters formally committing to the deal, which had to that point only been ratified by 24 other countries. China also officially submitted its carbon neutrality “before 2060” target through its long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy, first announced on 22 September 2020. In October 2021, China submitted its updated NDC to the UNFCCC. This document firms up and moderately increases the country’s existing commitments, rather than announcing significant step changes. 

In China, ICAT’s support has focused on a) tackling specific gaps and barriers in applying new modalities, procedures and guidelines (MPGs) for the transparency framework referred to in Article 13 of the Paris Agreement, b) transitioning to the 2006 IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, and c) strengthening China’s monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework for non-CO₂ emissions. 

The Initiative for Climate Action Transparency (ICAT) supports improved transparency and capacity building under the Paris Agreement. ICAT works closely with its partner countries to develop policy-focused, priority-driven projects that develop the information and data frameworks and related capacity to improve the implementation, tracking and enhancement of their NDCs and reporting. ICAT’s approach is country led.

ICAT began its support to China in 2019, partnering with the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), under the guidance of the Department of Climate Change in the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. An initial scoping mission to China in April 2019, attended by the ICAT Director and ICAT’s implementing partners, provided an opportunity for several inception meetings to discuss ICAT’s offer and to properly define the project and agree next steps. ICAT has delivered three phases of support to China, with technical support provided to the NCSC by ICAT’s implementing partners in the country, the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre and the Instituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA).

Developing a national modalities, procedures and guidelines handbook 

The first phase of ICAT’s work in China focused on supporting the country to tackle specific gaps and barriers in applying the MPGs adopted at COP24 in Katowice in December 2018. The MPGs are a set of common guiding principles and rules that set out reporting requirements under the Paris Agreement for countries at different stages of reporting. These guidelines set out, for instance, what reporting is required, which methodologies and metrics should be used and what quality assurance mechanisms should be in place. 

One of the first tasks supported by ICAT was the development of a national MPG handbook for China. This included a study to interpret the transparency rules under the Paris Agreement, analysing the requirements of the enhanced transparency framework at both domestic and international levels and reviewing these against China’s existing compliance rules on transparency. This enabled gaps in China’s existing transparency reporting to be identified and highlighted, with recommendations made for inter-sectoral cooperation mechanisms and technical support. ICAT also supported work to translate the MPG handbook into Chinese for use by Chinese officials, as well as customizing the handbook to the Chinese environment. This phase of ICAT support was completed in September 2020.     

Updating China’s GHG emissions reporting 

A scoping study was then conducted for ICAT’s second phase of support to China. This focused on supporting China to update its greenhouse gas emissions inventory reporting, following feedback from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that part of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting still followed the 1996 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories and had not been fully updated to reflect the newer guidelines and methodologies contained in the 2006 IPCC guidelines adopted in Katowice in 2018 to operationalize the Paris Agreement. Due to its reliance on a combination of the 1996 and 2006 guidelines, China’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting was only partially complete and needed to be updated to include new sectors, sources of emissions and data categories. 

The ICAT project supported a comparison study of the 1996 and 2006 guidelines, enabling a gap analysis that helped to establish which sectors and data needed to be updated for China to reach compliance with the 2006 guidelines. The study, completed in September 2020, also discovered that although some sector data was already being captured, it was not yet being shared across ministries. A strong data sharing mechanism was therefore needed to support reporting under the UNFCCC, as well as better analysis and data quality checks to ensure reporting was reaching the right standard. 

Building directly on this study, the ICAT project provided recommendations on the data collection mechanisms required to bring China’s national greenhouse gas inventories into alignment with the 2006 IPCC guidelines. Rather than producing a general report on how China could meet the new requirements, a detailed manual was developed that sets out what data is needed under each category and where that data can be sourced. This manual, delivered in August 2021, is facilitating data gathering and has been very useful for China’s inventory team. Stakeholders note, however, that broader dissemination and take-up remains pending.

Strengthening the MRV framework

A third phase of ICAT support has focused on improving China’s MRV framework for non-CO₂ emissions, with a particular focus on methane emissions, proposing monitoring and statistical standards and methodologies for the coal and oil industries, as well as other sectors such as agriculture and waste. Under this phase, analysis was undertaken to determine the level of methane emissions from various sectors. The total methane emissions in 2014 was 55.29 million tonnes, of which 44.8 per cent came from energy activities (the largest share from coal mining), 40.2 per cent from the agriculture sector, 11.9 per cent from waste treatment and 2 per cent from the oil and gas sector. Further analysis reviewed MRV frameworks for different level emission sources from the coal mining sector, with a focus on underground coal mining, surface mining, post mining and abandoned mines. The same analysis was run for the oil and gas sector, with a focus on venting and flaring, leakage and fugitive from connections and sealed points and abandoned oil and gas wells. This has helped to identify how different actions could reduce emissions.