Abstract:

South-South Cooperation to address climate change is a solemn promise made by Chinese Leader at the Paris Climate Conference. It is also a concrete practice that embodies the spirit of the Nineteen Major Conferences, “to be a participant, contributor and leader of global ecological civilization”. As an important foreign aid program of China, there is a lack of relevant research. In practice, the choice of foreign aid countries is usually based on the leaders’ visiting places and some important international conferences, which is lack of systematism and continuity, being also in line with the characteristics of the primary stage of foreign aid. In order to promote the sustainable development of South-South Cooperation to address climate change more efficiently and systematically, and produce better environmental and social benefits, a methodological discussion was carried out on the selection of priority aid countries for South-South Cooperation based on quantitative assessment in this paper. The evaluation index and weight were determined by expert collective scoring and analytic hierarchy process. The stage threshold method was used to convert the performance of different countries in the evaluation index into quantitative score, and the comprehensive score and ranking of countries were calculated. The results show that South Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia are among the top five priority aid countries, and 20 priority aid countries are listed. In general, the top 20 priority aid countries belong to the 77+ China Group under the United Nations mechanism, 90% of them are participating countries in the “Belt and Road” Initiative, and 70% are members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The assessment conclusions are consistent with the major cooperation initiatives initiated by China. The high degree of relevance can not only support the development of South-South Cooperation to address climate change, but also echo and promote the development of other international agendas led by China. This paper attempts to introduce quantitative evaluation research methods in the traditional qualitative description and evaluation fields, and expand the application of research methodology. The conclusions of the paper can provide reference for relevant departments to choose priority aid countries for South-South Cooperation to address climate change.

Key words: Climate change, South-South Cooperation, Priority aid countries, Foreign aid