China Calls for International Cooperation in Emissions CutChinese chief negotiator Liu Jiang Tuesday urged for concrete international cooperation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions so as to roll back global warming.At the 12-day sixth meeting of the contracting parties of the UN conference on climate change, Liu said that a large number of developing countries have made great efforts to tackle the problem of climate change, while the industrialized nations remain at loggerheads. Liu, also vice chairman of the State Development Planning Commission, said that China, as a developing country with the largest population in the world, has undertaken an enormous task in recent years to redress climate change at home, he said. Statistics showed that compared with 1990, the energy consumption per 10,000 Chinese yuan (US$1,200) GDP in China dropped 50 percent in 1999 and the share of coal in total primary energy consumption decreased 9.1 percent, while the use of biomass, solar, wind and geothermal energies was over the equivalent of 300 million tons of standard coal. In the past 10 years, 52.73 million hectares of forests have been planted in China. Liu warned that the intention to drop the UN framework convention and the Kyoto protocol by some signatory states will "do nothing but destroy" the campaign of rolling back global warming. "The problems caused by climate change can only be tackled through sincere cooperation between developed and developing countries and through a significant increase of economic and scientific and technological ability in developing countries," he added. Delegates from the developing world agreed that technology transfer and financial support by the industrialized nations are needed to fight climate change as the gap of economic development and science and technology between the South and North is becoming wider. Scientists said that within the next century the emissions of greenhouse gases could raise the earth's surface temperature by 1.5 to 6 degrees Celsius, raise the sea level by 15 to 95 centimeters and cause such extreme climate as drought, flooding and heatwaves more often. The Hague conference has entered a crucial ministerial round of talks that are expected to produce a credible pact on how to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The United States, the world's number one emitter of carbon dioxide, strongly argued for unfettered trading of emission allowances by way of purchasing elsewhere forestation and clean development projects to offset its own over-emission. The European Union, however, wanted a 50-percent ceiling capped on the US proposal which it criticized of lacking genuine effort to cut emissions at home. |
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