With respect to the carbon market, current CDM mechanism reform or a
post-2020flexible mechanism arrangement has not yet been determined, causing
somewhat of an adverse impact on near and medium-term China-EU carbon credit
trade. However, the vast global carbon trading market will become another
important stage for China-EU economic and trade cooperation in the long run.
9.4.2 Rule Competition
International climate governance is carried out with support from numerous climate
rules. Developed countries have more voice and means-based rights in building
climate mechanisms, while China is at a disadvantage in this aspect. Developed
countries such as the EU have more intellectual resources and reserves within the
Convention, whether on emission trading,flexible mechanism rule design or on
methodology, and have also acquired more experience in rule application and
improvement. Developed countries such as the EU have put forward some more
specific suggestions with regards to emission reduction actions involving various
fields outside the Convention, such as control of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
short-lived gas, international aviation and navigation, urban transport, major
industrial emissions and forestry activity emissions, low-carbon/ecological stan-
dards, global low-carbon/ecological labels, etc. Compared with the Convention and
the Protocol that have a political nature, various rule proposals for building emis-
sion reduction mechanisms in a single area involve more extensive competition.
This requires that China’s decision-making should enable overall coordination in
industry, foreign trade, science and technology, strategic planning for development,
etc.; rule designs proposed by China should safeguard national interests and the
interests of the group of developing countries, and also take into account the needs
of the EU side, and they should also reflect the overall interests in an active global
response to climate change.
9.4.3 Negotiation Politics
After the Durban Climate Conference, the original north-south pattern in global
climate negotiations was weakening, and contradictions between large emitting
countries and small emitting countries became striking and evolved into a new
negotiation pattern between large emitting countries and small emitting countries.^31
How China and great powers engage in win-win cooperation in building climate
mechanisms under a single-track negotiation mechanism became the issue which
needed to be carefully considered by China and the EU.
(^31) Hongyuan ( 2012 ).
9 China-EU Relations in the Context of Global Climate Governance 183