A senior Chinese official said at Honolulu in Hawaii Wednesday
that all relevant countries should take practical actions to slow
down the climate change process.
Addressing a closed session at the second "Major Economies
Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change," which opened at
Honolulu on Wednesday, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's
National Development and Reform Commission, said that to discuss
about setting a long-term goal for slowing down climate change
requires time.
"What matters most now is to urge all countries in their various
development phases to take practical action in accordance with the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and
the Kyoto Protocol.
The UNFCCC is the parent of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the
landmark environmental treaty negotiated in Japan's ancient capital
that mandates cuts in the gases blamed for global warming.
While working on a long-term target for slowing down the climate
change, all countries involved should be aware that the formulating
process itself must be scientific, environmentally valid,
economically feasible and fair, he said, adding that historical
accumulation, per capital emissions and the development demand of
the developing countries should also be weighed as well.
He made the remarks in response to greenhouse gases emission
reduction targets proposed by the European Union and some other
countries.
The European Union proposed that the global emissions of
greenhouse gases should be cut by 50 percent by 2050 in comparison
with that in 1990, while some other countries proposed that the
emissoins should be deducted by 50 percent than present.
It is hard to reach the target, he stressed.
Xie, who is regarded as the initiator and leader of China's
environmental protection program, spoke highly of the various
measures and achievements taken and scored by the developing
nations in combating climate change.
China, India and other developing countries have cut more
emissions of greenhouse gases than they pledged in the Tokyo
Protocol, he said, noting some developed nations, however, have
discharged more greenhouse gases than they should have with the
total emissions rising by 11 percent from 1990 to 2004.
Xie, the special envoy of?President Hu Jintao, noted that China will never
discharge greenhouse gases randomly and willfully, but contribute
to the concerted efforts of the world in its fight against climate
change by joining hands with the international community.
He also commended the Bali Roadmap, which was adopted at the
13-day conference in Bali of Indonesia in December of 2007, staged
by the UNFCCC, a strategy to tackle global warming.
The conference culminated in the adoption of the Bali roadmap,
which charts the course for a new negotiating process to be
concluded by 2009 that will ultimately lead to a post-2012
international agreement on climate change. Ground-breaking
decisions were taken which form core elements of the roadmap.
The two-day meeting in Hawaii is aimed at "developing a detailed
contribution in support of the Bali Roadmap for UN Negotiations,"
the organizers said.
Bush held the first round of the meeting in September 2007 under
an initiative he proposed in June in the face of intensifying
international pressure for Washington to do more to battle
greenhouse-gas emissions.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2008)
