Commentary: No rain check to be taken on global climate action

Aerial photo taken on Aug. 23, 2021 shows a view of the Saihanba forest farm in north China's Hebei Province. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

From practicing the new concept of green development at home to promoting overseas low-carbon energy transformation and technological innovation among its Belt and Road partners, from technology exchanges to joint project management, China has been honoring its commitments to boosting common development and global climate governance.

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Global villagers are celebrating the annual Earth Hour Saturday evening with a united voluntary blackout gesture as the climax of an eco-week.

No sooner have they heeded the International Day of Forests on Monday, World Water Day on Tuesday and World Meteorological Day on Wednesday than this one of the world's largest global grassroots movements for the environment trend on social media is in the wings.

These green-promoting events, along with a few others of the kind throughout the year, have been reminding people of an inconvenient truth marked by frequent natural catastrophes, not least extreme weathers, and thus of an urgent joint response.

Earlier this month, wildfires raging across the southeasternmost U.S. state of Florida consumed more than tens of thousands of acres and forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 households, authorities said, attributing the tinder to vast areas of dead trees left behind by Hurricane Michael in 2018.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded 20 climate disasters across the country in 2021 that each resulted in losses of at least 1 billion U.S. dollars.

In Europe, many people still have fresh memories of a devastating summer in 2021 under the dual impacts of floods and wildfires, with unprecedented temperature rises and heatwaves in Greece, large areas of scorched forests, pastures and fruit trees in Albania, and torrential rains and inundation in Germany so calamitous that then German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "the German language hardly has words for the devastation that has been wrought."

These overlapping havocs have exposed the vulnerable globe increasingly to a harsh climate reality with even more extreme climate events ahead unless the whole global village stands in solidarity, ditching lip service and delivering concrete action.

Sadly, however, some wealthy countries, who have built their wealth by burning fossil fuels and therefore accounted most for the climate crisis, constantly failed to honor their commitment to leadership as well as technical and financial assistance.

Aerial photo taken on March 3, 2021 shows a solar thermal power project in Gonghe County, northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

The world's progress in the transition to sustainable energy has also been stalled amid a botched and piecemeal COVID-19 response, baffling policy flip-flops, a bumpy ride to recovery and uncertainties over the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, both key suppliers for crucial metals used in green manufacturing technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries.

Concerns over energy security are also boosting fossil fuel imports, triggering crude oil price hikes and calls within Australia to delay emissions reduction efforts.

"Scientists are certain that emissions from human activity have caused dangerous and permanent damage to the planet. Our window to reduce emissions and limit temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible, but it's closing rapidly," said Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist of World Wildlife Fund.

"We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed.

In honoring its pledge to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, China, as a responsible developing country, has been advancing the green transition of its economy and the development of ecological civilization on a robust scale with a slew of practical and people-centered measures.

From practicing the new concept of green development at home to promoting overseas low-carbon energy transformation and technological innovation among its Belt and Road partners, from technology exchanges to joint project management, China has been honoring its commitments to boosting common development and global climate governance.

The clock is ticking away till a world under the siege of climate change makes a real concerted action. As countries navigate into the choppy waters of uncertainties, the global community must not allow its joint climate action to falter under the illusion of a rain check, nor can it afford to see high-profile green events and declarations reduced to a mere act of symbolism.