China is becoming 'friendly' to the environment?

The United States entered the climate talks this week with unflattering images, one left after eight years of ' disregarding ' the global emission reduction process since the presidential government's predecessor. Bush. But, China is no less competitive.

The world's largest country is now the country with the largest carbon emissions, and it is the economic growth rate - coupled with air pollution caused by coal consumption, which makes China hard to lose. That ' stain ' in the air one afternoon afternoon.

While the United States receives the world's " aversion " for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, China, a developing country has no requirements in that Protocol and rarely takes charge. during the UN climate change negotiations.

The gap between the US and China about which countries need to cut carbon emissions and which countries need to pay for it - remains the main reason behind the deadlock in negotiations on gas change. post-global in recent years, both countries deserve to be blamed for not leading the world in this regard.

Helanshan wind power plant in Ningxia province, China.(Photo: Reuters)

The whole world knows that America will change when President Obama comes to power, at least about the importance of climate change that he still emphasizes in his election campaign. But after the United Nations high-level meeting on climate change on September 22, China itself won the upper hand. President Hu Jintao told the United Nations that China will increase the use of recycled and nuclear power in energy supplies by 15% by 2020, planting 40 million hectares of forests by 2020, increasing. Investing in an environmentally friendly economy and cutting carbon emissions at a ' significant ' reduction by 2020.

Currently, the fastest growing economy in the world is heading to the world's fastest growing financial market: carbon trading. The Beijing-China Environmental Exchange (CBEEX) and the French emissions trading market BlueNext announced on September 23 that they are setting carbon market standards for China. Although China is far from accepting the carbon emission limit required by countries to use the Kyoto Protocol, the country is well aware that they must participate in the global carbon market.

China will still be far from " voluntarily " accepting to impose limits on its carbon emissions. In fact, President Hu Jintao does not promise to reduce China's carbon emissions, but simply pledges that China will save energy - something that everyone knows to do all the time.

' China is aware that if it continues to consume energy and develop in the old way, this' factory 'will soon collapse ,' said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Agreement on Variable climate change said. But China does not even say how much it will improve carbon emissions - Xie Zhenhua, China's top environmental official, said ' we are studying the problem and we can declare it. announced the target sooner . '

However, it is a significant change for a rather ' tight ' country on the diplomatic stage. The US has not yet said how much carbon emissions it will cut, due to delays in the Senate. Both countries will need to do more if they want to succeed in the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, and they will need to be more frank.

But as Yarnold of EDF said in a speech on September 24: " China has not lagged behind in the race to develop clean energy and cut down on global warming pollution. In fact, they are moving forward. If not careful, it is the US that is left behind . '