China’s Working Paper Shows No Commitment to Cutting Emissions

By ZIXIN LI

Published: December 2, 2009

LONDON — China put forward a working paper on November 30 for discussion among delegations, which is the first paper to be submitted by the five permanent member countries.

In this paper, China emphasized “the need for common but differentiated responsibilities and respective responsibilities among member states”. It means China will insist on its stance on carbon emission cutting, i.e. “lower absolute emissions recognising their respective share of historical responsibility and current development positions”, which is mentioned in the paper.

Other key players, especially the United States, are expecting China to identify a specific responsibility to show their sincerity. But China is reluctant to make a respective commitment. In this paper, China suggests a 25% reduction on 2005 levels as a minimum commitment for Annex 1 countries by 2020 and a second target of 45% by 2030. Annex 1 countries were designated in the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, which includes 40 countries. All of them are industrialized countries and economies in transition. Included in this bracket are the United States and all the European Union countries.

In the meantime, China is building its camp to gain more leverage in negotiating with Annex I countries. Now it is said by insiders that Costa Rica and Uganda are already on the “China team”, which is not unexpected, since China has already begun to act as the leader of the so-called “Third World”. Libya, Mexico and Vietnam are expected to support China, however Turkey is still flip-flopping. A heated dispute is expected to take place at the Security Council meeting on December 16th.

China is purported to be the biggest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in the world. In 2006, its GHG emissions accounted for 21.5% of total world emissions, which is more than the total amount of EU and Russia. But it claims that historically, up to 80 percent of all GHGs existing in the atmosphere are emitted by developed countries, and therefore they have to pay off the debt.

[Via http://nytucl.wordpress.com]