China’s emissions pledge shows commitment to Copenhagen

Following the lead taken by President Obama earlier this week, China’s official Xinhua agency said today that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has also confirmed that he will attend next month’s climate summit in Copenhagen.

"Wen's presence at the meeting fully embodies the Chinese Government's great attention to the issue and its political willingness to address the issue with international co-operation," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang is quoted as saying.

China is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity and the ‘carbon intensity’ target commits it to reducing the amount of carbon produced per unit of economic output, not actually cutting emissions. 

Since China’s economy is expected to double in size by 2020, its actual emissions will be considerably higher by 2020 – even if it meets the new target.

Nevertheless, Xinhua quotes the view of China’s State Council that this "voluntary action" based on China’s “own national conditions" will be “a major contribution to the global effort in tackling climate change."

According to Xinhua, a statement issued by the State Council says emission intensity targets announced for the first time by China, will "a binding goal" to be incorporated into the country’s mid- to long-term social and economic development plans. 

New measures will be formulated to audit, monitor and assess its implementation.

China has also committed to ensuring renewable and nuclear energy accounts for 15 per cent of the country's total primary energy consumption by 2020 and has also committed to planting 40 million hectares of tree to increase the country's forest area.

Xinhua quotes the State Council as saying, that as a responsible developing nation, China advocates global concerted efforts in addressing climate change "through pragmatic and effective international co-operation."

Ailun Yang, Greenpeace China's climate and energy manager, clearly hopes China’s announcement will shame other developed nations into setting themselves more ambitious emission reduction targets.

“This is another challenge to the industrialised world, particularly the US, which has just announced an inadequate emissions reduction target,” she said.

This week the United States said it will pledge in Copenhagen to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 –  far below the 25 to 40 per cent cut from 1990 levels recommended by the UN Climate Panel.

Overall, Ailun Yang welcomes China’s announcement of its carbon intensity target two weeks ahead of the Copenhagen summit. 

“This is a significant announcement at a very important point in time,” she said, though she added: “China could do more.”