Friday, May 22, 2009

China Calls for the West to Reduce Emissions to 40% of 1990

Wealthy nations, as history's biggest polluters, should cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, China says in a policy document on climate change. The government also rolled out fresh help for solar power and other "green energy."

The reductions China is calling for are based on the principles of "historical responsibility and fairness," the position paper says, and set a hard line ahead of international negotiations on addressing global warming.

A U.N. conference set for December in Copenhagen aims to draft a new agreement on controlling carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases that scientists say are causing the Earth to warm. Delegates will meet in Bonn, Germany, next month to begin discussing the text of that agreement.

China's position paper was posted Thursday on the Web site of the National Development and Planning Commission, the country's main economic planning agency.


First off, the West is struggling to get TO 1990 emissions.

Secondly, *CHINA*, not the US, is the world's biggest emitter. If they continue to refuse to curb their own emissions, this is pointless: the Chinese are less carbon efficient than even the US. For an economy half the size of the US, they produce more carbon than we do. If they had one as large as the US, they'd be produced twice as much. if they had an economy as rich per capita, China would be producing almost nine times as much CO2 as the US.

Third, keep in mind that China has outright stated that they will not be doing anything that may effect their economic growth until 2050. They have stated they will not be curbing CO2 emissions until then. Whatever the US, the West, the Developed World, does, China is going to more than make up for by itself.

And then there's still India...

As I have said before, I am saying now, and will say again: Global Warming Is Inevitable.

We need to start talking mitigation, folks.

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