China Carbon Emissions Worry Environmentalists
The US is no longer the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases: China is. China carbon emissions are a topic of discussion of environmentalists everywhere, since a recent Chinese report came out saying that China should try to limit carbon emissions so that they will peak in the year 2030 and fall after that. Read more about China Biofuel Industry Market Outlook
The report is an indication that China may well be willing to set ceilings on carbon emissions and show more flexibility in climate change talks. The report was written by China’s Energy Research Institute and lays out in no uncertain terms how climate change can devastate the country if China carbon emissions are not curbed.
The report’s preface says that climate change is “a matter of great urgency” in China. This is a big departure from China’s previous reluctance to examine the ultimate effects of China carbon emissions. The report is 900 pages long and plainly admits that it now is the top greenhouse gas emitter – outpacing even the US. China carbon emissions mostly come from burning oil, gas, and coal.
The main theme of the “2050 China Energy and CO2 Emissions Report” is that China needs to make and meet quantified targets to address climate change. If China is able to slow emissions growth by the year 2020, it could see China carbon emissions peak in the year 2030. The report claims that if China can do this, then by 2050 China carbon emissions could fall to the levels measured in 2005 “or even lower.”
The current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and this new report signals that Beijing wants to participate in international climate change pacts. Western countries have urged Beijing to set specific goals for slowing China carbon emissions, curbing absolute numbers worldwide as part of an international pact that western governments want to approve at the end of 2009 at a meeting in Copenhagen. Under current treaties, China carbon emissions are not included in quantified limits on emissions taken on by richer economies. Beijing’s stance has been that average carbon emissions per person is far lower than the average in richer countries.
Contributors to the China carbon emissions report include policy experts from various Chinese scientific organizations and think tanks. Scholars who contributed to the report stressed that it represents research results and not specific policy. They made it clear that there was no endorsement by senior officials on specific China carbon emission proposals and the proposed 2030 peak. However, officials have circulated proposals that urged making China carbon emissions an important part of China’s government’s environmental policies.
The report is clear in spelling out the possible dire consequences of global warming, stating that the threat is “massive” and warning that droughts, floods, lowered agricultural productivity, the retreat of glaciers, and threats to China’s water supply could be the result of unchecked China carbon emissions.
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