Ahead of next month’s crucial UN-led talks in Copenhagen, China yesterday announced plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40-45% by 2020 and intends to take major steps to develop renewable and nuclear energy to meet consumption demands.
According to a press release from the Chinese Embassy in Guyana, the State Council made this announcement yesterday, following a Wednesday meeting with Premier Wen Jiaboa. In a report, the Xinhua News Agency reported that the State Council announced China would reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45%, compared with the level of 2005. The Chinese government described it as “a voluntary action” based on its own “national conditions” and “a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change.”
Jiaboa met with the State Council to review a national task plan addressing climate change and, according to a statement issued on Thursday, the index of carbon dioxide emissions cuts announced for the first time by China would be “a binding goal” to be incorporated into its medium and long-term national social and economic development plans. In 2020 the country’s GDP is expected to at least double the current figure and so will the emissions of greenhouse gases. “New measures would be formulated to audit, monitor and assess its implementation,” the statement said.
Qi Jianguo, an economic and environmental policy researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Science, told Xinhua that the targets would put “great pressure” on China’s development. Qi, a quantitative economist who studies links between the economy and climate change said as the word’s largest developing country China would be challenged to achieve the target therefore more effort must be made besides strictly abiding by the principle of “energy-saving and emissions reductions.”
According to the release, China’s government would devote major efforts to developing renewable and nuclear energies to ensure the consumption of non-fossil fuel power accounted for 15% of the country’s total primary energy consumption by 2020. More trees would be planted and the country’s forest area would increase by 40 million hectares and forest volume by 1.3 billion cubic meters from the levels of 2005. China advocates global concerted efforts in addressing climate change “through pragmatic and effective international cooperation” and it reiterates its principled stand for implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. The state Council believes that both the UNFCCC principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” and the Bali Roadmap should be observed.