Climate change 'a problem for rich countries', says China
China, the world’s second-biggest source of greenhouse gases, today insisted that global warming was a problem for richer countries.
With a booming economy and a consumer car-buying frenzy, China is expected to soon overtake the US in production of carbon dioxide.
That has made China a target for some foreign governments and activist groups searching for solutions to climate change at next month’s UN meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Today Chinese officials unveiled a television documentary on climate change and outlined government efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
But at the same time, they struck an uncompromising note, saying that success at Bali depended chiefly on richer countries.
“The key point is to have developed countries continue to fulfil their obligations to reduce their gas emissions after 2012,” a Foreign Ministry official said.
The Bali meeting is to lay the groundwork for a successor agreement to the current climate-change treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Kyoto set emissions targets for developed countries while exempting developing ones.
The US rejected Kyoto, saying it put richer countries at a competitive disadvantage, and has called for a new agreement to include China and all other polluters.
Recently China has hoped to win support from other emerging nations, arguing that binding limits will harm their economic growth.
Although China’s overall emissions are high, its production of greenhouse gas per head of population is relatively low. Today the Foreign Ministry said developed countries should reduce their per capita emissions to the levels of developing countries.
