Tasks and objectives:

The International Cooperation Division (ICD) of the Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing represents in China the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) from the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs. The ICD maintains a policy dialogue in China and implement the cooperation projects funded by SDC.

The division focuses mainly along the following objectives:

Climate change mitigation: Switzerland is contributing to the effective implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement and intends to be climate-neutral by 2050. It expects China, as a party to this agreement and the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, to deliver on its commitment to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by 2060 and to become a leading international climate finance donor. In order to help accelerate this transition, the ICD supports China using expertise and relevant technologies. It focuses bilateral international cooperation in China on activities to mitigate harmful greenhouse gas emissions. 

International development cooperation tools and instruments: Switzerland engages with China through a dialogue on international development cooperation policies, strategies, approaches and practices and on the implementation of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. ICD Intensifies knowledge transfer from Swiss international cooperation through concrete activities and political dialogue and trilateral cooperation.

Emergency preparedness and response: Switzerland cooperate since 2003 with China for strengthening search and rescue capacities, including of countries in the region.

We deal with the following areas in particular:

• Co-operating with China for defining innovative strategies and technologies for addressing the global challenge of climate change; We work together with national and provincial authorities, Chinese universities, academies and research centers, developing pragmatic solutions to the different issues linked with the mitigation of the climate change, particularly in the areas of air pollution control, energy-efficient buildings, and alternative technologies to heating and cooling of buildings.
• Leading a strategic dialogue with Chinese international development cooperation actors on international development cooperation policies, strategies, approaches and modalities. We enter in trilateral cooperation on the topics of disaster risk reduction and health. 
• Working together with China to increase the capacity at global level to respond to major disasters, by having know-how transfer on earthquake emergency rescue.