Xie Zhenhua (; born November 1949"BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF THE AWARDEE OF THE LUI CHE WOO PRIZE – PRIZE FOR WORLD CIVILISATION 2017 SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE"
Board of Governors,

Lui Che Woo Prize The LUI Che Woo Prize – Prize for World Civilisation (), is an international prize founded on 24 September 2015 by Lui Che-woo, Lui Che Woo, Chairman of K. Wah International of Hong Kong. There are three prizes for the three objectives of the Lui ...

.) is a Chinese politician who served as vice-chairman of China's top

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

body, the

National Development and Reform Commission The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has br ...

as well as serving as China's special climate envoy.

Early life and education

Xie Zhenhua was born in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

he was put to work in the countryside. Specifically, he was among the millions of “

sent-down youth The sent-down, rusticated, or "educated" youth (), also known as the ''zhiqing'', were the young people who—beginning in the 1950s until the end of the Cultural Revolution, willingly or under coercion—left the urban districts of the ...

” who were dispatched to the countryside to retrain their minds through hard labor, and for this Xie was sent to

Heihe Heihe (; ; Russian: Хэйхэ) is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province, China, located on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River, across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census, 1,2 ...

in the northern province of

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

.Li, Jane.
“China’s Xie Zhenhua is the most important person attending COP26”

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

(27 Oct 2021) via

Yahoo Finance Yahoo! Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo! network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers some online tools for person ...

. Xie joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

(CCP) in 1969. He graduated in 1977 from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

with an

Engineering Physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

degree. Xie also earned a Master's Degree of Law from the Department of Environmental Laws, Wuhan University School of Law in 1991.

Career

He was appointed head of the State Environmental Protection Administration in 1998, and during his tenure required companies to comply with environmental rules, but was eventually forced to resign after the

2005 Jilin chemical plant explosions The Jilin chemical plant explosions were a series of explosions which occurred on November 13, 2005, in the No.102 Petrochemical Plant in Jilin City, Jilin Province, China, over the period of an hour. The explosions killed six, injured dozens, an ...

. In 2007 Xie was appointed vice minister at the

. In 2015 he stepped down from this position to focus on being a Chinese representative on climate change. He was the lead negotiator for China at most

United Nations Climate Change Conferences United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

since 2009. In 2019 he was replaced by his aide Zhao Yingmin, before returning to that role. Xie's role has been positively received among many foreign politicians and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

activists, as he has been a driver behind China signing binding commitments to reduce emissions. Xie is seen as "China's voice on climate change". He has emphasized China’s stance that rich countries have a greater responsibility regarding climate change than China, though China has been the world’s largest carbon emitter since 2006. His speech at the 2010 climate conference in South Africa conveyed this Chinese position: Xie remains at the forefront of debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation, and advocates

carbon emission trading Emission trading (ETS) for carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) is a form of carbon price, carbon pricing; also known as cap and trade (CAT) or carbon pricing. It is an approach to Climate change mitigation, limit climate c ...

(also known as a carbon market), and climate aid to developing countries. He led the Chinese delegation at the

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021. The ...

(i.e. COP26) in November of that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xie, Zhenhua 1949 births Living people People's Republic of China politicians from Tianjin Tsinghua University alumni Chinese Communist Party politicians from Tianjin Ministers of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China Climate change in China