China shows no interest in contributing to climate deal
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Once again China is content to snipe away at ‘rich’ countries (and the US in particular) while abdicating her own responsibilities as she hides behind the convenient – and somewhat spurious – cloak of a ‘developing’ country. I’m prepared to bet that the Chinese delegation was behind Sudan’s criticism of developed nations a couple of days ago. Enlisting a dictatorial puppet in their machinations, or coercing minnows to throw a spanner in the works are well-worn China strategies.
Let’s be clear about what China has put on the table in Copenhagen. Beijing proposes not to cut emissions, but to continue increasing them at a slower rate, to 40 to 45 per cent (per unit of GDP) below 2005 levels by 2020. In other words China is proud to be both the biggest polluter and largest holder of foreign reserves on the planet, but would rather not share the tab for this particular – or any – undertaking that does not explicitly benefit China above all others. For the second time this year, China has dissed the Earth.
It’s all one big game of hardball scheming to China, where the object isn’t to come away with a climate deal, but rather to position itself as the champion of the poor (restrain your laughter, please) and tag the ill-defined ‘west’ as the bad guys who can’t be trusted to stick to their pledges.
For once in their shabby, narrow-minded, selfish, dictatorial lives why can’t the Chinese government treat a global conference as something other than a winner-takes-all game of risk?
Answers on a postcard to P.O. Box 666, Zhongnanhai.
Update
The Australian spells out the problem:
RICH nations, including the US and Australia, are demanding that China and other major developing-nation greenhouse gas emitters pledge clear reduction targets in an internationally binding agreement that allows the promises to be checked.
The US special envoy on climate change, Todd Stern, arrived in the Danish capital with a clear message: China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, had to take on a binding and verifiable commitment.
Mr Stern said the US accepted its responsibilities, but added “the country whose emissions is going up really rapidly is China”.
“You can’t even think about solving this problem without China,” he said. “You just have to do the math. There is no way to solve this problem by giving developing countries a pass.
“Virtually all of the growth in emissions going forward . . . will be coming from developing countries, of which about 50 per cent will come from China alone.”
And there you have it.