Emma Graham-Harrison and Chris Buckley
Reuters
BEIJING: China has unveiled its first firm target to curb greenhouse gas emissions, laying out a carbon intensity goal on Thursday that Premier Wen Jiabao will take to looming climate talks as his government’s central commitment. The announcement comes a day after the United States unveiled its proposal to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 and said President Barack Obama would attend the December 7-18 UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Beijing said on Thursday Wen would also attend.
China, the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity, pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide emitted 40 to 45 percent (in correlation with its economy) by 2020, compared to levels in 2005, the official Xinhua agency reported.
“This is a voluntary action taken by the Chinese government based on its own national conditions and is a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change,” Xinhua said, quoting a Cabinet meeting chaired by Wen.
The firm emissions commitment from China will help efforts to reach a deal at the UN-led talks in Denmark.
“This is a huge morale booster,” said John Hay, spokesman for the UN Climate Change Secretariat, referring to the Chinese target and the planned visit by Obama.
Greens agreed. “It is extremely welcome news that China is now putting specific figures on its reductions of carbon intensity toward 2020,” said Kim Carstensen, leader of WWF International’s global climate initiative.
Negotiations over a new climate-change treaty have stalled as rich and poor nations argue over who should cut emissions, by how much and who should foot the bill.
China’s announcement after big emitters Brazil and Indonesia recently announced tough 2020 reduction targets and Wednesday’s 2020 target from the United States are expected to help the Copenhagen talks, analysts say, although there are likely to be demands for tougher action.
The Cabinet said that the goal, which will still allow China’s greenhouse gas emissions to grow as the economy expands, was a demanding one for the developing country.
“Controlling greenhouse gas emissions faces enormous pressures and special hardships,” the report on the meeting said.
China said it would embrace or extend a range of steps to reach the target, including financial and taxation policies, and continue a drive for more renewable, nuclear and clean-coal energy.
Pan Jiahua, a member of China’s negotiating team for the up-coming Copenhagen talks, said the intensity goal would result in big changes to his country’s path of rapid, pollution-drenched growth.
“Personally I think this number is a bit [too] high for China’s present capabilities,” said Pan, a climate policy expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “Achieving it will require shifting more from old power plants, and also financial subsidies – for example, for power-saving appliances, clean vehicles, and so on.”
But the goal was also in line with what many analysts said was China’s current trend-line in carbon intensity, and that may leave space for at least some negotiators to press for further concessions at the Copenhagen talks.
Beijing is already almost half-way to meeting the carbon intensity goal already after five years of an energy efficiency drive that has helped rein in emissions growth, but critics are expected to counter that it is not ambitious enough.