China will [not] cut emissions, just transfer your technology and large sums of cash and they’ll think about it
Chinese climate negotiators raise possibility of global warming pact by 2020
By Juliet Eilperin, Published: December 5
Chinese climate negotiators raised the prospect of negotiating a legally binding climate pact at U.N. talks this weekend in South Africa, but the requirements they laid out for reaching that goal might make such a deal hard to reach.
In separate remarks to reporters and non-governmental groups, two of China’s top climate officials suggested they might participate in talks aimed at forging a new, enforceable global warming agreement by 2020. That issue, along with the question of whether industrialized countries will agree to a new set of emissions reductions under an existing 1997 climate treaty, are key stumbling blocks in the ongoing climate talks in the coastal city of Durban. (WaPo)
U.S. sees little new in China greenhouse gas cut pledge – The United States is sceptical that China’s comments it could support a legally binding deal to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions marked a breakthrough in troubled climate talks, an Obama administration official said in Durban Sunday. (Reuters)
China’s consumers emit more than US for the first time – In the inglorious race to warm the planet, developing countries are catching up. For the first time, China’s consumers are responsible for more carbon dioxide emissions than their US counterparts are – and consumption in developing countries now generates more carbon dioxide than that in developed countries.
Until recently the most significant trend was rich nations’ practice of effectively exporting their emissions. They do this by shutting down their own factories and importing goods from China or other emerging economies. In 2008, for instance, one-third of China’s domestic emissions came from the manufacture of goods for export, which means that consumers in rich countries were ultimately to blame for those emissions.
That situation is now changing, says Glen Peters of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research – Oslo, in Norway. Consumers in developing countries – those not included in annex B to the Kyoto protocol – released more CO2 than consumers in developed countries. As a leading emerging economy, China’s emissions grew 10.4 per cent last year. “The developing countries’ excuses are starting to drop away,” says Peters. (New Scientist)