While the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is a year away, China already made two important gestures when it issued the nation's first Policies and Actions For Addressing Climate Change on October 29 and co-hosted a technology transfer and development forum with the UN in November.
While the United States and the majority European countries are struggling to survive the financial winter, China's gestures give the world some warmth on the long road from the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali to Copenhagen in 2009.
China's White Paper offers observers a good chance to observe the efforts the country has made to set itself on a low carbon track. China is very clear about what it needs from the developed countries - developed nations should provide financial support and transfer technologies to help developing countries fight against global warming, as it is stated in the White Paper. Similar statements were also made at the November China-UN forum.
China has taken part in the international climate change negotiations since they began in 1990. The past 18 years has witnessed China's shift in becoming more "active", "constructive" and "open", in terms of becoming an important player in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market and formulating national low-carbon policies. CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.
China used to be cautious about CDM and entered the market very late. However, by January 2008, of 901 projects, China had registered 105, only second to India, according to the CDM Executive Board.
China has a strong and comprehensive low-carbon policy framework in place and is making a successful effort in reducing energy intensity, according to the White Paper. China has targeted a 20 percent reduction in energy intensity by 2010, based on 2005 levels. By conserving and using renewable energy, China reduced 835 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in 2006 and 2007.
Similar conclusions can be also found in the report, by The Climate Group, a London-based non-profit organization focusing on solutions to climate change (for which I am the Greater China Director.) The report states that China is already the leading renewable energy producer in the world and Chinese entrepreneurs are riding a low carbon wave of investment. However, many governments, business leaders and individuals from international community often ignore these facts. China is usually pictured as a scary carbon-guzzling monster that is opening a coal-fired plant every week.
The world is waiting and expecting a "deal" from the Copenhagen conference in December 2009 and more will be expected from China, who will sooner or later overtake the US as the world's leading emitter of green house gas (GHG). It is time for China to demonstrate itself to the world as a "responsible" leading developing country. China should not only show its willingness to play a key constructive role in international negotiations to push the whole world towards a low carbon future from the top-down, but also from the bottom-up, by starting low carbon projects in different industry sectors, cities and regions, such as setting up a model "low carbon zone" in cities.
As a country that is undergoing a rapid industrialization and urbanization, China can choose a "Chinese characteristics" way to realize its own low carbon future. The concepts of "resource-conserving" and "environmentally friendly society" put forward by the Communist Party act in accordance with the "low carbon" concept by the European Union. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, in 2006 and 2007, optimization of industrial structure saved 147 million tons of coal equivalent, equal to 335 million tons of CO2 emissions. China could realize sustainable economic development within the climate change framework.
In the meantime China should be more active in building a "responsible" image in the international society. China's rapid growth worries many such as the United States and EU concerning its commitment to addressing the climate change issue. China needs to handle these "worries" in a positive and more "aggressive" way by being a "constructive solution provider".
The Chinese government should demonstrate China's efforts and progress in addressing the issue to the world through both official and unofficial channels such as the media, and should express its willingness to shoulder more responsibilities in building an international framework on some appropriate occasions. Or, China can even be a little bit more flexible and active about its commitment to GHG emissions reduce at different phases of the country's development.
The author is Greater China Director of London-based The Climate Group. All the views expressed in the article are her own.
(China Daily November 24, 2008)
