US–China Disagree Over Emissions Ahead of Copenhagen Conference
China, the world's largest emitter, insists developed countries be held to stricter standards. (image: umn.edu)
In all likelihood, the US will not reach a deal on climate change with China during President Barack Obama’s visit to Beijing next month, the country’s senior climate change official said on Wednesday, as reported on NPR.
Todd Stern, the State Department’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, dashed hopes that there might be an agreement between the world’s two biggest emitters before the global climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
“There is no agreement per se,” said Todd Stern, and added that there had been no intention of a separate bilateral deal.
Big differences remain between the two countries, particularly on greenhouse gas emissions, with the US pressuring China to make a substantial reduction. However, China is not bowing to the pressure and says they are using other measures, such as improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2010 and planting trees over an area the size of California.
That’s not enough for US negotiators. “The Chinese absolutely have to cap their emissions in the sense of having them reduced significantly as compared to where their trend line is,” said Stern. “China could make a reduction twice as ambitious as the US is doing, and that would still involve their emissions going up somewhere from where they are now.”
Emission caps would damage China’s development, says Zhou Fenqi from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. His colleague, Huang Renwei, points out that the existing situation is 100 years old, and that developed countries should share more responsibility than China, which is why they want the US to make larger emission cuts than those pledged. China wants developed countries to contribute between .05 and 1 percent of their GDP to developing countries to deal with global warming.
According to the International Energy Agency, China emits more greenhouse gases than any other country. But China insists that its cumulative emissions are a quarter of America’s.
And China is moving faster towards its goal of producing 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. As the world’s largest producer of solar panels, it is poised to overtake the U.S. as the top manufacturer of wind turbines this year.
As far as what to expect in Copenhagen, Stern isn’t particularly optimistic. “I think there’s a deal to be had but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get it.”
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Tara says: says:
I thought the same thing when I saw the picture, Kristy! It’s a very alarming image. If we look at some of the more industrial US cities like Detroit, Cleveland, & Newark, I’m almost certain we’d find similar images (re: air quality). I’m actually from Cleveland, and I can tell you that the air quality downtown is horrible. Oh, and then there’s Los Angeles!
I digress.
I covered the Beijing Olympics for YouthNoise.com two summers ago and I was familiar with the stories about Beijing shutting down factories and banning cars from the road. It’s insane.
With China and the US being 2 major emitters in the world, I’m really hoping the conference in Copenhagen will address these issue and make some headway as a result.
Kristy Kershaw says: says:
First of all, that picture is insane! A quick Google search of air quality in China brings up similar pictures, and it’s alarming.
From the looks of this Reuters article back in July, [http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5622GY20090703] China knows it needs to deal with its air pollution problem, if only for the sake of its inhabitants. To have the air acceptable during the Beijing Olympics, they had to shut down factories and ban cars from the road. I really hope they see the light. I understand their point about the cumulative effects, but at a certain point, that shouldn’t matter. This isn’t a contest. It’s the future of our world.