31 May 2007Alan Wheatley
China will release its first national plan to tackle climate change next week, seeking to rebut international criticism that it is not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, officials said on Thursday.
They said the blueprint was tentatively due to be published on June 4, two days before President Hu Jintao attends a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Germany at which global warming will be high on the agenda.
The officials, briefing reporters on condition they not be identified, staunchly defended China's record in tackling climate change. But they reaffirmed Beijing's rejection of compulsory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say are heating the planet.
"A mandatory quota for China now would not be fair and therefore China cannot accept that," said one official who helps direct Beijing's climate change policy.
China looks set to become the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide this year or next, just as serious talks start to extend the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol on global warming beyond 2012.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hopes the G8 summit, in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, will pave the way for an extension of the protocol by agreeing on concrete steps to tackle emissions.
China's objection to mandatory caps, which is shared by the United States, underscores the difficulty she faces.
Beijing argues that rich nations pumped out most of the carbon dioxide already accumulated in the atmosphere and so they should cut their own emissions rather than push poorer nations to accept caps that could constrict their growth.
"Developed countries are to blame for climate change, but resolving this issue needs cooperation among all countries based upon on their different responsibilities, their capacity and their level of economic development," a second official said.
China's emissions per capita of its 1.3 billion population are only one-fifth as high as America's, officials said.
What's more, they said, between 1991 and 2005 China reduced the amount of energy used to produce each unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 47 percent -- a conclusion corroborated by the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
"This cannot be matched by any other country during this period, including the European Union," the first official said.
NOT A "MR NO"
Since 2003, however, this measure of "energy intensity" has rebounded, and China has been fighting to restore the downtrend.
A strong government campaign produced a 1 percent reduction in 2006 and China is sticking to its target of cutting 2005 levels by 20 percent by 2010. "This goal is quite high, but we have the capability to reach it," he said.
Among other steps, China aims to increase the proportion of energy produced from renewable sources, such as hydro and solar power, to 10 percent of the total by 2010.
The officials gave no details of the content of the climate change plan, but sources who saw an earlier draft said China's political leaders appeared wary of making commitments they might not be able to keep.
While an internal assessment of the risks to China from global warming proposed the country's first targets to curb emissions growth -- in the form of a target for "carbon intensity" -- officials told Reuters last month that the national plan probably would not include concrete targets.
Under the carbon intensity target, which is less demanding than a goal for an outright cut in greenhouse gases, China would reduce its emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide per unit of GDP by 40 percent from 2000 to 2020.
The G8 summit will also focus on fostering growth in Africa and global economic cooperation.
The main members of the club -- the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia -- have invited China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico to an "outreach session".
India, one of the world's top-five greenhouse gas emitters, also opposes binding emissions targets.
It says global warming is the fault of industrialised nations, which should commit to deep emissions cuts first rather than pressuring developing countries.
Asked whether China risked being labelled "Mr No" for its opposition to emission caps and a refusal to let the yuan rise more quickly, a third official said Hu would work to tackle global challenges, including economic imbalances.
"China won't be a Mr No. We want to be a Mr Cooperation and Mr Partnership," he said.
