20 June 2007 - International
— According to a new study, China's carbon
dioxide emissions last year were the largest
in the world. But responsibility for China's
soaring emissions lies not just in Beijing
but also in Washington, Brussels and Tokyo.
The study, released today by the Netherlands
Environmental Assessment Agency, says that
in 2006 China produced 6,200m tonnes of
CO2 pollution, compared with 5,800m tonnes
from the US, which has long been the world's
top climate polluter.
One reason for China's massive CO2 emissions
is that over the years, the West has effectively
exported a great portion of it's manufacturing
there. No environmental conditions were
attached to this manufacturing move, and
today we see the result.
"The only thing corporations were
interested in was the price of labour,"
said Greenpeace UK executive director John
Sauven on his blog. "This trend kept
the price of our products and inflation
down, but at the cost of soaring greenhouse
gas emissions in China. In the long term,
this policy has been a climate disaster.
It's the downside of globalisation."
No excuses for China
Coal accounts for 69 per cent of the primary
energy in China - 42 per cent higher than
the world's average. And China is beginning
to realise the consequences of burning fossil
fuels, not least because it is already suffering
serious impacts from climate change including
worsening typhoons, desertification and
melting glaciers.
"To develop in a cleaner way is possible,"
said Ailun Yang, Greenpeace China Climate
and Energy Campaign Manager. "China
has to decouple its economic development
from the consumption of polluting fossil
fuels. The Chinese government needs to raise
the development ambitions for renewable
energies and implement its binding energy
efficiency targets."
At the beginning of June, China's National
Climate Change Programme outlined measures
China would take to combat climate change.
This at least shows that the Chinese government
acknowledges the problems of climate change
as well as the responsibility of China to
help tackling these problems. However, the
biggest problem with the National Programme,
as with government programmes everywhere,
is the actual implementation of its targets.
"Greenpeace urges governments at all
levels in China to implement the National
Plan on Climate Change," said Yang.
No excuses for anyone
Per capita the US remains the world's worst
number one CO2 polluter. On average, people
in China are responsible for 3.5 tonnes
of CO2 each per year, whereas in the UK
it's nearly 10 tonnes and for North Americans
it's 20 tonnes. The G8 (world's richest
nations) are also responsible for over 80
percent of the climate change we are experiencing
today, and still emit over 40 percent of
all global emissions.
"If we are to protect the global climate
every help must be given to assist China
to clean up its act. They put in the right
supportive policy. We have the technology.
The two must be put together," concluded
Sauven. "But we also have to examine
our consumption binge of cheap Chinese products
made in factories dependent on very polluting
forms of energy."
