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Politics : The Exxon Free Environmental Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ron who wrote (769)	6/19/2007 8:02:59 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49004

The winds of climate change blow across China China has released a new action plan to strengthen its strategies to cope with climate change June 19, 2007, 09:30 By: Sun Xiaohua, Jia Hepeng and Wu Chong China has released a new action plan to strengthen its strategies to cope with climate change, says the Science and Development Network website. "Science and technology is one of the basic and fundamental approaches to effectively address climate change," said Wan Gang, the science and technology minister at a press conference. According to Wan, his ministry has spent $600 million since 2006 on science and technology projects to combat global warming - almost twice that spent in the previous five years. He did not specify any targets for spending in the coming years. The total science and technology budget for combating global warming will actually be bigger because money is also spent by the National Natural Science Foundation, the China Meteorology Administration and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Focus on raising energy Wan said the focus was on raising energy efficiency, developing renewable and cleaner energy and exploring cleaner coal technology. Other important issues were the capture and sequestration of the carbon pollutants causing global warming, absorbing carbon biologically and cutting 'greenhouse gas' emissions through improved farming methods. The projects will also support key policy issues related to climate change. The country plans to operate pilot projects of climate change adaptation in key industries and vulnerable regions - such as agriculture and arid north-western China - by 2010. By 2020, China vows to have developed independently-owned and widely-applied technology to control greenhouse gas emissions. By then, the country hopes that the capacity of those key industries and regions to cope with climate change will be enhanced. Zhang Chengyi, a leading scientist at the National Climate Centre, part of the China Meteorology administration - welcomes the move. "The increased funding for climate change science is definitely good news to encourage Chinese scientists to make more contributions to this area," says Zhang. He told SciDev.Net that the increased funding should be spent more transparently and publicly, so that the most capable researchers can obtain it. Quota system rejected But earlier this month, China rejected a quota system for climate change which would require emission caps (strict limits on the amount of pollution from fossil fuels released into the atmosphere). It rejected the idea of mandatory caps on emissions, saying that they are unfair for developing countries. China plans to restructure the energy industry, promoting clean technologies, including nuclear power generation. The programme highlights three major targets to achieve by 2010, reducing energy consumption by 20%, increasing renewable energy to 10% of the primary energy supply and increasing reforestation by 20%.Li Liyan, the deputy director of the Office of National Coordination Committee on Climate Change, told SciDev.Net the program is important to "convey a consensus" among China's top leaders on mitigating climate change. Ma Kai, the minister of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, said that it is "too early, too abrupt and too blunt" for the international community to impose emissions caps on the expanding economic giant, whose emissions, per person, have historically been much lower than developed countries. He said the most important task for China is to "develop the economy and eradicate poverty" and the international society should respect its "development right". He insisted that absence of caps "does not mean China would not fulfill relevant responsibilities". Separate international climate change framework Ma disputed recently publicised initiative of George W Bush, the US president, of forming a separate international climate change framework, saying that the initiative should complement international treaties namely the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol instead of replacing them. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, rejected Bush's proposal outright. He told the Guardian newspaper in Britain that countries should work together under the auspices of the United Nations "and not under US leadership". - SciDev.Net sabcnews.com