Climate a Bigger Challenge Than Recession, China Says
By John Duce
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest polluter, said climate change is a challenge that it shares with the world and is a more formidable one than the global recession.
The world’s third-largest economy is committed to helping fight climate change and has taken “responsible” steps, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Liu Yanhua said at a conference in Hong Kong today, reiterating the stance of President Hu Jintao.
Industrialized economies such as the U.S. and developing countries led by China are deadlocked on how much rich nations should help poor ones deal with climate change and how much wealthy countries should cut emissions. President Hu said last month China will cut emissions in proportion to economic growth, without giving specific targets or goals.
“High-ranking members of the government are now publicly saying before the Copenhagen climate-change summit what China is doing to tackle the problem and that it’s prepared to do more,” Yang Ailun, a spokeswoman at environmental group Greenpeace, said by phone from Beijing. “The aim is also to put pressure on countries like the U.S. to make greater commitments to reduce emissions and to counter arguments China’s not doing enough.”
China is among more than 190 nations set to gather in Copenhagen starting Dec. 7 for the final round of talks on a climate accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, expiring in 2012. The Chinese government has ruled out accepting binding caps on emissions, saying it will tackle climate change by increasing the use of cleaner forms of power and by reducing energy use.
Curbing Emissions
Developed nations should share carbon-reducing technologies with poorer countries to help them cut emissions, Liu said today. He also said developed countries should take the lead in committing to binding emission caps.
India and China would have to “respond very positively” if rich nations such as the U.S. agreed to a goal of cutting emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, India’s environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said on Aug. 25 in an interview in Beijing where he had met with Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate-change negotiator.
Meeting India’s negotiating stance would entail an overhaul of climate-change laws in developed countries. In the U.S., legislation passed by the House sets the goal of a 17 percent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020.
Access to Technology
Emerging economies including India have said they need access to funds and technologies such as wind turbines to meet emission curbs and sustain growth.
China is lagging at least 10 years behind the West in the development of energy reduction- and clean electricity- production technology, and richer countries should transfer this know-how to developing nations, said Wang Xiaokang, president of the state-controlled China Energy Conservation Investment Corp., which advises companies on emission and pollution reduction.
China has submitted a plan to develop alternative forms of energy such as wind and nuclear to the Cabinet for approval and may announce the proposal before the Copenhagen talks, Zhou Fengqi, an adviser to the energy research institute at the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Sept. 21.
The New-Energy Development Plan is pending final approval from the State Council, or Cabinet, and will include some revised “bigger and bolder” goals to develop new types of energy, Zhou said.
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