On the occasion of the German-Chinese Intergovernmental Consultations taking place today, the German and Chinese governments have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a dialogue and cooperation mechanism on climate change and the green transformation. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and ZHENG Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, on the Chinese side, signed the Memorandum of Understanding.

With this declaration, both countries are making it clear that they intend to work more closely together in the fight against climate change. The memorandum of understanding therefore contains eight fields of action for cooperation, including the key field of the decarbonisation of industry, the expansion of renewable energy sources, the circular economy and the issue of sustainable financing.

In the memorandum, Germany and China acknowledge that both countries have a special responsibility to take climate action and achieve the 1.5 degree target. They reaffirm the need for visible progress in climate change mitigation, particularly in this decade, and intend to further increase efforts for this purpose. For this to work, existing formats are to be used and expanded. Specifically, the aim is to work more closely together at provincial and sectoral level and to accelerate decarbonisation, especially in the industrial sector. There will be an annual high-level forum, tasked with tracking and coordinating joint developments and led by German Climate Action Minister Robert Habeck and the Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Zheng Shanjie.

The Memorandum of Understanding can be found here.