The UK has become a global leader in the fight against climate change.  British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has made climate change a central pillar of the UK’s foreign policy, calling it “the greatest challenge facing the world today”.

UK action

The UK is the first country in the world to set legally binding long-term national targets on emissions reductions: the Climate Change Bill that became law in November 2008 will lower Britain’s emissions of all six greenhouse gases by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020 (30% contingent on a robust post-Kyoto agreement) and 80% by 2050.  This goal was increased from an original 60% target in response to a new scientific review by the Committee on Climate Change.  The cost of meeting this goal will equal 1% to 2% of the nation’s total GDP by 2050 – the equivalent of losing six months’ growth over 50 years against a backdrop in which wealth has tripled.

The UK is committed to a low-carbon, high growth global economy.  Failing to act on climate change will lead to devastating economic impacts; conversely, moving to an energy-efficient, clean fuels future will generate jobs and prevent the waste of resources and money.  The UK’s efforts to address climate change have gone hand in hand with economic growth.  Between 1990 and 2005, the UK economy grew by over 30% while greenhouse gas emissions fell by over 12%.  The landmark Stern Review of the economic impacts of climate change found that under conservative assumptions, the overall costs and risks of doing nothing will be equivalent to losing 5% of global GDP each year, while the costs of action could be limited to 1% of global GDP each year.

The 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2007 indicated that climate change is happening, that it is very likely caused by human activities, and that addressing climate change is an urgent task. It also concluded that such trends, unabated, would mean temperature increases by the end of this century up to 4 degrees centigrade and sea level rising by up to 60 centimetres - with pervasive and prolonged consequences for ecosystems, food and water supplies and human settlements. Given the unprecedented broadness, gravity and depth of the impacts, we must rely on co-operation among all countries to combat climate change.

UK action at home includes the following:

• Passing of the Climate Change Bill in 2008 which will lower Britain’s emissions of all six greenhouse gases by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020 (30% contingent on a robust post-Kyoto agreement) and 80% by 2050. The bill can be accessed at here.
• Publication of the Energy Bill in 2008. It contains the legislative provisions required to implement UK energy policy following the publication of the Energy Review 2006 and the Energy White Paper 2007. The bill can be accessed at here.
• Target set by the government of 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010. In 2005, 4% of the UK's electricity supply came from eligible sources of renewable energy. 
• Publication of the 'Energy White Paper' on 23 May 2007. The White Paper contains an ambition to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 60% by around 2050. The full document is available at here.
• Production of the Stern report, which demonstrated that the economic costs of climate change, if unchecked, would be comparable to the economic effects of a Great Depression combined with a World War. The costs of stabilising the climate are significant but manageable. The worst impacts can be substantially reduced if greenhouse gas levels are stabilised between 450 and 550ppm CO2 equivalent (CO2e). The full report is available at here.

UK-China Co-operation

We aim to achieve our objectives in a number of ways, including through bilateral policy dialogue, mitigation, adaptation, technical and financial support and capacity building by involving people from government, business, science and technology fields, and academia.

In September 2006, MOUs to establish a UK-China Climate Change Working Group and UK-China Energy Group were signed. The UK-China Climate Change Working Group has been facilitating scientific collaboration on climate change, policy and market-mechanisms for promoting energy efficiency, policy dialogue on possible forms of long-term cooperative action on climate change, the economics of climate change and the development of the EU-China cooperation on Near-Zero Emissions power generation technology through Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The China-UK Energy Group provides a framework for both Governments to broaden cooperation to all upstream and downstream energy sectors, including renewable energy and energy efficiency. It enables government energy policy discussion, particularly in the area of energy security and for UK and Chinese energy companies to develop beneficial partnerships in the energy sector. You can access the MOU on UK-China Climate Change Working Group here: MOU on Establishing a China-UK Climate Change Working Group

In Jan 2008, during Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to China for UK-China Summit, the UK and China signed Joint Declaration on Climate Change to further strengthen co-operation through a partnership in this field, in particular, co-operation on adaptation to climate change, low carbon technology development and transfer, clean energy, energy efficiency, research on programmatic CDM and the Near Zero Emissions Coal Project.

UK companies are engaging with Chinese enterprises to provide technical solutions that help to reduce energy consumption and reduce emissions. The UKTI section of the Embassy supports British companies involved in climate change activities and helps them enter into the Chinese market. A large number of British companies are involved in the Clean Development Mechanism. Details of UKTIˇs work in China are at the UKTI website .

DFID China are also working with the Chinese government on adaptation and on a shift to low carbon. Details of DFID’s work in China are at the DFID website .

The British Council is working to strengthen networks and relationships among decision makers, influencers and future leaders worldwide to tackle climate change.  Details of the British Council’s work in China can be accessed here.

British Embassy Beijing

The mission of the Climate Change Section of the British Embassy is to help support a shift to low carbon economy in China. We are also working with China to achieve an ambitious agreement to a post-Kyoto international framework to reduce emissions globally.

China has embarked on ambitious and transformational domestic climate change action, through targets on energy efficiency (20% improvement per unit of GDP between 2005 and 2010), renewables (15% of the energy mix by 2015) and afforestation (20% coverage by 2010). We aim to support China in achieving these objectives and in exploring the opportunities for an even greater acceleration to a low carbon economy.

Project Funding

Through the Strategic Program Fund (SPF), formerly known as the Global Opportunities Fund (GOF), the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office funds projects in a number of countries to support action on global issues in areas of strategic importance to the UK. Through the SPF Climate Change and Energy Program, the UK is supporting a number of projects in China working on climate change, renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy security. More details of the SPF such as focus areas, objectives and application procedure are available on the FCO website at here.