Will Zimbabwe also ratify the Kyoto Accord?
[EDIT: No Maurice, because if you are wrong, which you could easily be, it will be game over]
china.scmp.com
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Beijing to ratify Kyoto Protocol at Earth Summit
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE and RAY CHEUNG
Beijing is prepared to ratify an international protocol on greenhouse gas reduction.
"China's State Council has already decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol," said Zhang Jun, deputy director-general of the Department of International Organisations and Conferences under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The procedures are now under way."
According to Mr Zhang, Beijing will make the formal announcement next month at the United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit in South Africa which begins on Monday.
Premier Zhu Rongji and a delegation of more than 200 government and non-government officials will attend.
Mr Zhang stressed China was committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and called on developed countries to do more.
As the world's second-largest source of greenhouse gases, China has been praised by scientists for its decision to ratify the treaty, which has been rejected by the United States, the world's top greenhouse gas emitter.
"This proves that China accepts its responsibility in protecting the global environment and its commitment to sustainable economic development," said Professor Liu Deshun, deputy director of the Global Climate Change Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Created in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which calls on both developed and developing countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are believed to cause global warming, leading to rising sea levels.
The treaty requires industrialised countries such as the US to cut their emissions to below 1990 volumes by 2008-12.
The treaty does not impose emission-reduction targets on developing countries such as China.
Earlier this year, both the European Union and Japan announced they would ratify the treaty. The US rejected the pact last year, saying it would harm the American economy while allowing countries such as China to continue to pollute.
Earlier, Beijing expressed reservations about ratification, partly due to Washington's rejection.
Despite this diplomatic wrangling, China recently cut its greenhouse gas emissions through energy and economic re forms.
Late last year, a joint study by Chinese and American scientists found that for 2000, China further reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 7.3 per cent from 1996 levels and methane by 2.2 per cent from 1997 volumes.
By contrast, the same study reported that from 1993 to 1999, fossil fuel emissions had increased in Western Europe, the US, Japan and India by 4.5 per cent, 6.3 per cent, 3.3 per cent and 8.8 per cent, respectively. |
