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Chinese chief negotiator Liu Jiang Tuesday called for concrete
international cooperation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions so
as to roll back global warming.
At the 12-day sixth meeting of the contracting parties of the UN
conference on climate change, Liu said that a large number of developing
countries have made great efforts to tackle the problem of climate
change, while the industrialized nations remain at loggerheads.
Liu, also vice chairman of the State Development Planning Commission,
said that China, as a developing country with the largest population
in the world, has undertaken an enormous task in recent years to
redress climate change at home, he said.
Statistics showed that compared with 1990, the energy consumption
per 10,000 Chinese yuan (US$ 1,200) GDP in China dropped 50 percent
in 1999 and the share of coal in total primary energy consumption
decreased 9.1 percent, while the use of biomass, solar, wind and
geothermal energies was over the equivalent of 300 million tons
of standard coal. In the past 10 years, 52.73 million hectares of
forests have been planted in China.
Liu warned that the intention to drop the UN framework convention
and the Kyoto protocol by some signatory states will " do nothing
but destroy" the campaign of rolling back global warming.
"The problems caused by climate change can only be tackled
through sincere cooperation between developed and developing countries
and through a significant increase of economic and scientific and
technological ability in developing countries," he added.
Delegates from the developing world agreed that technology transfer
and financial support by the industrialized nations are needed to
fight climate change as the gap of economic development and science
and technology between the South and North is becoming wider.
Scientists said that within the next century the emissions of greenhouse
gases could raise the earth's surface temperature by 1. 5 to 6 degrees
Celsius, raise the sea level by 15 to 95 centimeters and cause such
extreme climate as drought, flooding and heat waves more often.
The Hague conference has entered a crucial ministerial round of
talks that are expected to produce a credible pact on how to cut
emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
The United States, the world's number one emitter of carbon dioxide,
strongly argued for unfettered trading of emission allowances by
way of purchasing elsewhere forestation and clean development projects
to offset its own over-emission.
The European Union, however, wanted a 50-percent ceiling capped
on the US proposal which it criticized of lacking genuine effort
to cut emissions at home.
(Xinhua 11/22/2000)
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