China's Hu fails to set target on cutting emissions

[mawilson 2,133]

China plans a “notable” cutback in the level of carbon dioxide its industries emit

as part of international efforts to combat climate change, Hu Jintao, Chinese

president, told a UN climate summit on Tuesday.

Despite raised expectations ahead of the summit, Mr Hu put no specific target on

the reduction – which would be based on cutting carbon dioxide emissions per

unit of gross domestic product - but said the policy would figure in his country’s

next five-year plan.

“We will endeavour to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable

margin by 2020 from the 2005 level,” Mr Hu said.

More than 100 world leaders at the one-day summit had been looking to China,

the largest carbon dioxide emitter, for a signal it intended to take firm action on

climate change, in part to help overcome domestic resistance in the US and

elsewhere that the burden of fighting global warming should not fall unevenly

on developed states.

The UN gathering on climate change is the last before the conference in Copenhagen

in December at which countries will attempt to forge a replacement for the Kyoto

protocol.

There was little other sign of progress in the talks, as Barack Obama, US president,

appeared to scale back expectations for Copenhagen, calling for governments to

make the conference “a significant step forward in the global fight against climate

change”.

Telling the assembly every government faced problems in pushing forward the

climate agenda during a recession when the “most immediate priority” was to revive

their economies, Mr Obama spoke of US achievements in reducing emissions but

made no new commitments.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, opening the one-day summit, said: “Failure to

reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically

short-sighted and politically unwise.”

Leaders at the one-day summit had been looking to China to take firm action on

climate change, in part to help overcome resistance to a climate change agreement

in the US.

Many US businesses have vocally opposed any agreement to cut emissions without

strong commitments from China, fearing they would be undercut by Chinese rivals

with lax environmental standards.

Chinese officials fear the country’s exports will face carbon taxes if the government

cannot convince the international community it is taking decisive steps. Mr Hu wants

to try to disarm critics of the country’s environmental record and avoid becoming the

villain at Copenhagen, especially if the talks should fail.

The policy to cut China’s “carbon intensity” will include an expansion of renewable

and nuclear energy to 15 percent of energy consumption by 2020.

Even if carbon intensity improves, China’s overall emissions could continue to rise

indefinitely. For this reason, rich nations also want China to agree a date when its

emissions would peak, which China has resisted.

Lowered expectations for Copenhagen have been accompanied by increasing anger

in the EU that the US is not doing enough.

Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, told the summit: “The time has passed for

diplomatic tinkering, for narrow bargaining. The time has come for courage,

mobilisation and collective ambition.”

On the US side, officials are frustrated that the EU does not understand the difficulties

of getting a cap-and-trade bill through the Senate, seen as key to the US negotiating

position. Any US commitments made at Copenhagen would be dependent on

congressional approval.

Mr Obama, who has been focused on an intense domestic debate over healthcare,

noted on Tuesday that the House of Representatives had passed a climate bill but

gave no timetable for similar legislation in the Senate. “One committee has already

acted on this bill in the Senate and I look forward to engaging with others as we

move forward,” he said.

Al Gore, former vice-president and climate activist, on Tuesday called on the US

Senate to pass legislation before the end-of-year meeting in the Danish capital.

link

[justashooter 430]

no surprise to those who have walked thru the smog in china with a stick held forward when it was too thick to see where your next step was gonna land. too many open manholes to risk anythign less.