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Topics of interest and discussion are positive examples from Europe, such as Germany's nuclear exit-strategy and "Energiewende" or the EU's energy roadmap, China's energy policies and recent developments, such as strategies of China's current 12th Five Year Plan for the period from 2011-2015. Through these exchanges, Chinese CSOs support the dissemination of good examples for low-carbon development which are happening in China. As much as Chinese CSOs learn about developments in Europe, so do CSOs from Europe learn about China--in many cases they still lack a basic understanding of China's climate change or energy-related policies.
More concrete cooperation between European and Chinese on climate change has been somewhat difficult to initiate. European environmental CSOs have, so far, not been very proactive in seeking engagement beyond dialogue.Cooperation on low-carbon city developments is another real opportunity for European-Chinese CSO cooperation. As many municipal governments are beginning to use existing structures and channels of sister-city partnerships to have dialogues on climate change and low-carbon development, CSOs can begin to explore options for city level cooperation. Noteworthy examples are the cooperation partnerships between the cities of Bonn and Chengdu facilitated by Germanwatch and E3G, where local CSOs and think tanks are developing concrete models for collaboration mechanisms between Chinese and European CSOs, research institutes and city municipalities for low-carbon city development. The partnerships also focus on bottom-up low-carbon communities and neighbourhood initiatives, which are mostly neglected in urban planning processes.
