Chinese President Hu Jintao and a group of other state leaders
were pictured wearing open-necked shirts with short sleeves, rather
than their normal jackets and ties when attending a high-profile
conference at the Party School of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee on June 25 of this year.
The less formal attire wasn't just for their own comfort.
China's leaders are trying to set an example for all the office
workers to dress in light, casual clothing in summer in order to
reduce the use of air conditioners. The State Council, or cabinet,
ordered in June that air-conditioning units in most office
buildings be set no cooler than 26 degrees Celsius.
"As a developing country, China tries to shoulder more
responsibilities in addressing the issue of climate change and
reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions," says Lu Xuedu, deputy
director of the Global Environmental Affairs Office of the Ministry
of Science and Technology.
In China's National Climate Change Program issued on June 4, the
government pledged to restructure the economy, promote clean energy
technologies and improve energy efficiency.
With the new program, the nation has opted not to hide behind
the fact that the Kyoto Protocol frees developing countries from
the obligation to reduce GHG emissions, said Ma Kai, minister in
charge of the National Development and Reform Commission.
An Imminent Threat
"Climate change has begun to take its toll in China in recent
years, and we shouldn't wait till it is too late to take action,"
says Lu Xuedu.
Since the mid-1980s, China has experienced 19 warm winters. In
2006, the average temperature for winter hit 9.92 degrees Celsius,
the highest since 1951, according to statistics from the National
Meteorological Center.
Lu points out that if climate change remains unchecked, the
output of China's major crops including wheat, rice and corn will
drop by up to 37 percent in the second half of this century. Global
warming will also reduce the river levels, and lead to more
droughts and floods. And water supply in western China will fall
short of demand by up to 20 billion cubic meters from 2010 to
2030.
Climate change also presents a major threat to ecologically
vulnerable areas such as the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, says Qin Dahe,
an expert in glaciers, who is also an academician of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS).
"The glaciers on the plateau have been melting faster in recent
decades," he said.
If the speed of the temperature rise fails to slow down, he
warns, the total area of glaciers on the plateau will shrink to
100,000 square kilometers in 2030 from 500,000 square kilometers in
1995.
Since many major rivers in Asia come from the plateau, this
shrinkage might result in water shortages for more than one billion
people in Asia.
Liu Jingshi, a researcher with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Research Institute of the CAS, adds the plateau has also softened
as global warming melts the permafrost.
Liu says that the melting permafrost has already flooded some of
the Tibetan herdsmen's families, and will become even more
dangerous to them if the temperature continues to rise.
International Collaborations
The per-capita emissions of greenhouse gas in China stand at
3.66 tons, less than one third the level of developed nations such
as the Netherlands, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang at a
press conference in late June.
As a developing country, China is not obliged to meet targets
set by the Kyoto Protocol, under which most industrialized
countries are required to reduce gas emissions by an average of 5.2
percent below the 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.
Despite low per-capita emissions, Qin says, the Chinese
government has placed great emphasis on climate change and has
employed effective measures to cut emissions and their negative
impacts.
The spokesman called on the international community to
strengthen cooperation and help more countries embark on the road
of clean development that both protects the environment and
eco-systems and ensures the fulfillment of their development
goals.
"China is still in the process of industrialization, and has the
potential to become one of the world's leaders in reducing GHG if
proper technologies can be adopted before the industrial facilities
are built," said Dr Jason Blackstock, a researcher at Harvard
University.
He says that developed nations should also take the
responsibility to help China and other developing countries by
providing the advanced technologies needed for reducing GHG through
international collaborations.
Finding Alternatives
To actively address the issue of climate change, China released
the National Climate Change Program.
It is estimated if all the objectives prescribed in the program
are achieved -- on hydro and nuclear power generation, upgrading of
thermal power generation, facilitation of coal-bed-gas development,
the use of renewable energy resources such as wind power, solar
power and terrestrial heat, forestation and energy-saving -- the
world's most populous country will emit 1.5 billion tons less
carbon dioxide by 2010 while still continuing to grow rapidly.
China also issued the General Work Plan for Energy Conservation
and Pollutant Discharge Reduction, under which the government
pledged to adhere to its plan for energy efficiency and to reduce
major pollutant discharges by 10 percent by the year 2010.
The work plan criticized some government departments for their
poor awareness of the importance of energy efficiency and pollutant
reduction. The central government will reform the mechanism of
evaluating local governments and their leaders by including the
implementations of energy-efficiency and emission-reduction tasks
into their performances, according to the work plan.
It also contains instructions to government departments to work
out detailed measures for this reform.
Units, branches and bodies of the central government are asked
to take the lead in procuring energy-efficient, water-efficient and
environment-friendly products, such as air conditioners, computers,
printers and displays.
The state will encourage and direct financial institutions to
enhance credit support for environment-protection and
pollution-reduction projects. Preferential tax policies will be
offered for such projects.
The government will also reform pricing mechanisms for resource
products, such as refined oil, natural gas and electricity, and
restrict exports of high-energy consuming and heavy-polluting
products.
Energy use in high-energy consuming industries, such as steel,
non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals and cement production, will be
optimized to realize energy-saving targets of 50 million tons of
standard coal in 2007 and 240 million tons by 2010.
The government has also taken action to reduce the use of fossil
fuels. Non-fossil fuels will account for 30 percent of China's
energy consumption in 2050, compared with the current 10 percent,
says Yan Luguang, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
Even though China's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are
lower than countries like the United States or Australia, its heavy
reliance on coal makes it a major polluter and a major contributor
to emissions that cause climate change.
By 2050, the burning of coal will account for a much smaller
proportion in China's energy consumption compared with 70 percent
now, says Yan.
Oil consumption would contribute around 20 percent of the total
and reach 800 million tons in 2050, 75 percent of which would be
imported from foreign countries.
As China's energy demands continue to grow, a sufficient oil
supply is critical to the country's energy security.
The demand for natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power will
grow and by 2050 solar energy, wind energy and biomass energy will
account for 15 percent of the nation's total energy
consumption.
Scientific Support
Aiming for a green and hi-tech 2008 Olympics, China has designed the Olympic
venues to be as environment friendly as possible, with "green"
materials, and energy saving and water recycling systems.
The Olympic stadiums have also introduced solar and wind energy
and other new energies, which are vital in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
The Ministry of Science and Technology and 14 other government
departments in June jointly issued a special action plan for
science and technology for China to deal with climate change,
providing scientific support to the National Climate Change
Program.
China invested 2.5 billion yuan (US$330 million) in the research
and development for climate change control during its 10th
Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).
In the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), says
Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang, the government will
invest more in this field, with 4.6 billion yuan (US$610 million)
already put into a number of projects.
The nation must consider developing a "low-carbon economy" and a
"carbon-absorbing economy", says Wan. A low-carbon economy is a low
energy-consuming and low pollution-based economy.
Other methods, such as optimizing energy structure, improving
energy efficiency and developing clean and renewable energy, should
also be taken to deal with the climate change, he says.
(Xinhua News Agency October 4, 2007)
