C
Captain Compassion
Guest
China says climate policy must make room for growth
By Emma Graham-Harrison and Chris Buckley
Mon Jun 4, 7:31 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China went on the global warming offensive on
Monday, unveiling a climate change action plan while stressing it will
not sacrifice economic ambitions to international demands to cut
greenhouse gas pollution.
The official launching the plan said emissions caps that dented growth
in poor nations would do more damage than climate change itself --
despite the storms, droughts and rising sea levels that global warming
threatens to generate.
"The ramifications of limiting the development of developing countries
would be even more serious than those from climate change," said Ma
Kai, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, which
steers climate change policy.
"China will not commit to any quantified emissions reduction targets,
but that does not mean we will not assume responsibilities in
responding to climate change," he told reporters.
China's first national plan on climate change vows to combat global
warming through energy saving, agricultural adaptation and forest
planting.
But the document will also serve as a shield for tough international
talks ahead. Beijing faces rising calls to sign up to quotas for
taming greenhouse gas emissions trapping more heat in the atmosphere.
The plan appeared two days before President Hu Jintao attends a
meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Germany which will focus on
global warming.
"This is more of a mobilization rally to draw the battle line as the
G8 approaches. Beijing wants to make sure that China is not the target
of world opinion on global warming issues," said Wenran Jiang, an
energy expert at the University of Alberta.
The plan says wealthy powers produced most of the gases currently
heating the globe and still have far higher per capita emissions than
China, so they should fund clean development rather than forcing poor
countries to accept emission limits.
Rich countries had shifted manufacturing to poor nations like China
and then blamed them for rising pollution, while dragging their feet
over promises to share clean technology, he said.
"We feel that there's been lots of thunder but little rain, lots of
talk but little action," he told the news conference when asked if
China was satisfied with technology transfers.
Ma said that in 2004 his nation's average per capita emissions were
about one fifth of U.S. levels for the same year.
INTERNATIONAL JOSTLING
Contention over greenhouse gases is set to intensify as negotiations
open on extending a U.N. treaty on global warming beyond 2012, when
the 1997 Kyoto Protocol's first phase ends.
China on Monday welcomed U.S. President George Bush's recent
proposals on global warming as a "positive change," but joined several
European leaders in calling for a single global approach.
Bush aims to convene 15 top polluting nations, including China, to
develop long-term goals to combat global warming.
Some critics fear Bush's proposal for separate talks could rival U.N.
efforts. Ma said they should be a "helpful complement, not a
substitute."
But he disputed an EU target of limiting temperature rises to 2
degrees Celsius, calling for further studies on the social and
economic impacts of the target.
"I think that as yet there is no scientific basis for that," Ma said.
The national plan spells out the threats China sees from global
warming in coming decades -- intensified droughts and floods, rising
sea levels, melting glaciers, and declines in grain yields unless
counter steps are taken.
It promises to support clean transport, wind and solar power,
recycling in industry, "stress-resistant" crops, and shore walls to
withstand rising seas.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will head a "national leading group" to
orchestrate climate change policy, the plan said.
The creation of the group "indicates increased seriousness about the
climate change issue," said Gorild Heggelund, who analyses Chinese
global warming policy at the Fridjof Nansen Institute in Norway.
Beijing now had in place broad goals to navigate climate politics in
years ahead, said Zou Ji of the People's University of China, who
advised the government on the plan. He said resistance to emissions
quotas would not shift.
"But that doesn't mean there's not room for cooperation or
negotiation," he added. "It does mean that cooperation has to be on
the basis that economic development has to continue."
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
By Emma Graham-Harrison and Chris Buckley
Mon Jun 4, 7:31 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China went on the global warming offensive on
Monday, unveiling a climate change action plan while stressing it will
not sacrifice economic ambitions to international demands to cut
greenhouse gas pollution.
The official launching the plan said emissions caps that dented growth
in poor nations would do more damage than climate change itself --
despite the storms, droughts and rising sea levels that global warming
threatens to generate.
"The ramifications of limiting the development of developing countries
would be even more serious than those from climate change," said Ma
Kai, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, which
steers climate change policy.
"China will not commit to any quantified emissions reduction targets,
but that does not mean we will not assume responsibilities in
responding to climate change," he told reporters.
China's first national plan on climate change vows to combat global
warming through energy saving, agricultural adaptation and forest
planting.
But the document will also serve as a shield for tough international
talks ahead. Beijing faces rising calls to sign up to quotas for
taming greenhouse gas emissions trapping more heat in the atmosphere.
The plan appeared two days before President Hu Jintao attends a
meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Germany which will focus on
global warming.
"This is more of a mobilization rally to draw the battle line as the
G8 approaches. Beijing wants to make sure that China is not the target
of world opinion on global warming issues," said Wenran Jiang, an
energy expert at the University of Alberta.
The plan says wealthy powers produced most of the gases currently
heating the globe and still have far higher per capita emissions than
China, so they should fund clean development rather than forcing poor
countries to accept emission limits.
Rich countries had shifted manufacturing to poor nations like China
and then blamed them for rising pollution, while dragging their feet
over promises to share clean technology, he said.
"We feel that there's been lots of thunder but little rain, lots of
talk but little action," he told the news conference when asked if
China was satisfied with technology transfers.
Ma said that in 2004 his nation's average per capita emissions were
about one fifth of U.S. levels for the same year.
INTERNATIONAL JOSTLING
Contention over greenhouse gases is set to intensify as negotiations
open on extending a U.N. treaty on global warming beyond 2012, when
the 1997 Kyoto Protocol's first phase ends.
China on Monday welcomed U.S. President George Bush's recent
proposals on global warming as a "positive change," but joined several
European leaders in calling for a single global approach.
Bush aims to convene 15 top polluting nations, including China, to
develop long-term goals to combat global warming.
Some critics fear Bush's proposal for separate talks could rival U.N.
efforts. Ma said they should be a "helpful complement, not a
substitute."
But he disputed an EU target of limiting temperature rises to 2
degrees Celsius, calling for further studies on the social and
economic impacts of the target.
"I think that as yet there is no scientific basis for that," Ma said.
The national plan spells out the threats China sees from global
warming in coming decades -- intensified droughts and floods, rising
sea levels, melting glaciers, and declines in grain yields unless
counter steps are taken.
It promises to support clean transport, wind and solar power,
recycling in industry, "stress-resistant" crops, and shore walls to
withstand rising seas.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will head a "national leading group" to
orchestrate climate change policy, the plan said.
The creation of the group "indicates increased seriousness about the
climate change issue," said Gorild Heggelund, who analyses Chinese
global warming policy at the Fridjof Nansen Institute in Norway.
Beijing now had in place broad goals to navigate climate politics in
years ahead, said Zou Ji of the People's University of China, who
advised the government on the plan. He said resistance to emissions
quotas would not shift.
"But that doesn't mean there's not room for cooperation or
negotiation," he added. "It does mean that cooperation has to be on
the basis that economic development has to continue."
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Celibacy in healthy human beings is a form of
insanity. -- Captain Compassion
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net