06-04-2007, 03:49 AM
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China unveils program on global warming
While, I don't think China will do that much to cap emmissions on global warming, a lot of China's comments were very true, how the current environmental problem is the result of hundreds of years of unrestrained pollution by the West and that developed countries do have an easier time of introducing pollution controls than do developing countries, who by definition are poorer and less technologically advanced.
China unveils program on global warming - Yahoo! News
Quote:
China unveils program on global warming
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING - China promised Monday to better control emissions of greenhouse gases, unveiling a national program to combat global warming, but rejected mandatory caps on emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the developed West.
While the program offered few new concrete targets for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases that are believed to contribute to global warming, it outlined steps China would take to meet a previously announced government goal of improving overall energy efficiency in 2010 by 20 percent over 2005's level.
"China is a developing country. Although we do not have the obligation to cut emissions, it does not mean we do not want to shoulder our share of responsibilities," said Ma Kai, the minister heading the National Development and Reform Commission, the cabinet-level economic planning agency.
"We must reconcile the need for development with the need for environmental protection," he told reporters. "In its course of modernization, China will not tread the traditional path of industrialization, featuring high consumption and high emissions. In fact, we want to blaze a new path to industrialization."
A 62-page report released by the NDRC called for stepped-up efforts to put the hard-charging but inefficient economy on a more sustainable footing and promised "to make significant achievements in controlling greenhouse gas emissions." The measures included expanded research and deployment of new energy-saving technologies, improvement of agricultural infrastructure, increased tree-planting and water resource management and greater public awareness of the issue.
Ma said implementation will "cost a fortune" but did not elaborate, stressing that it would be an investment in prevention. Given an economy that has been growing at better than 9 percent annually over the past 25 years, the plan's overall effect, if implemented, would be to slow the increase in greenhouse gases, not reduce their absolute amount.
China has fallen under increasing pressure internationally to take more forceful measures to curb releases of greenhouse gases. The country relies on coal — among the dirtiest of fuels — to meet two-thirds of its energy needs and is projected to surpass the U.S. as the world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases sometime in the next two years. In explaining the new program, Ma said global warming was largely caused by 200 years of unrestrained industrialization by the West, and it would be unfair to impose mandatory emissions caps on China and other developing nations.
"It is neither realistic nor fair to ... overlook the different stages of development that different countries are in and to use climate change as an excuse to ask them to undertake quantified emissions reductions commitments," Ma said. He added: "This would hinder the development of developing countries and hamper their industrialization."
Ma said industrialized countries are "in a better position to cap emissions." They also have the means to provide financial and technical support to help developing nations fighting climate change, he said. The report's release seemed in part an attempt to pre-empt criticism of China when Chinese President Hu Jintao attends an expanded summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in Germany this Friday. The summit will feature a session on global warming.
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