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All countries, both developed and developing, should take more concrete steps towards curbing global warming, one of the major and immediate challenges to mankind, in the forthcoming post-Kyoto era.
According to the UN climate conference in Indonesia in 2007, which culminated in the adoption of the Bali Roadmap, a set of quantitative standards for developed countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after 2012 should be drafted by this year, and plans be mapped out on how developing nations could take measures to reduce their emissions under the technological and funding support of developed ones.
Now, as COP15 (15th Conference of the Parties) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) approaches, there are international calls for more effort to tackle climate change. Compared to the situation in the past, what many countries now face is the need to reframe a new national development strategy or model instead of easing short-term political pressures as expedient tactics. For all countries, working out a post-Kyoto multilateral climate accord should be an indispensable part of their overall economic development blueprint.
The European Union (EU) advocates limiting global warming to no more than 2 degree Celsius and controlling the GHG intensity in the atmosphere under 450ppm-550pp as the long-term target. The EU has pledged to a 20 percent cut on their emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels. It has also committed itself to a larger 30 percent cut if other countries do the same. The new Japanese government pledged to slash emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, which is much higher than the 8 percent cut promised by the former Taro Aso government.
Despite facing more severe challenges in dealing with climate change, developing nations have also successively worked out their reduction targets and policies in the hope of including climate change in their national economic and social development programs.
As a nation with the world's largest population and a relatively low development level, China has long attached high importance to coping with climate change. Having actively participated in international efforts on this issue, the country has strictly implemented the UNFCC and the Kyoto Protocol. It has also remained active in joining bilateral and multilateral dialogues and cooperation, and played a constructive role in pushing for international climate cooperation. As early as in 2007, the Chinese government published a national climate change program and combined tackling the issue with China's sustainable development strategy in a bid to curb emissions and improve its ability to adapt to a changed climate.
A resolution passed by the 10th session of the 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee in late August on how China should respond to climate change was once again a manifestation of the country's posture toward the international community as a responsible power.
As a developing nation, China's contribution to global GHG emissions control have been appreciated by other countries. In 2005 alone, China reduced about 1.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions if calculated according to the per capita emission volume released by the International Energy Agency. The country's economic structural adjustment and its improvement of its energy utilization efficiency had saved it about 800 million tons of standard coal from 1991 to 2005, equivalent to 1.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Also, China's afforestation campaign since 1980 has greatly increased its GHG absorption ability.
Generally speaking, most countries have undertaken obligations in proportion to their economic development stage and levels in dealing with climate change. However, developed nations, as a whole, still remain far away from people's expectations. Especially, the US, as the world's largest economy, has made slow progress in cutting down GHG emissions.
Compared with the EU, the Obama administration's commitment to the medium-term emission reduction target seems to be too little, too late. For example, the new US administration pledged to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. But in the bill being discussed by the US congress on clean energy and energy security, the US pledged a 17 percent cut from 2005 levels by 2020, which effectively amounts to a cut of only 4 percent from the 1990 levels.
With less than three months left for the Copenhagen conference, scheduled from Dec 7-18, it appears particularly urgent for all countries to reach a consensus and then carry out effective cooperation in dealing with climate change. That requires all members to shoulder their deserved responsibility in accordance with their development stages and national ability.
In this respect, developed countries should do more than developing ones. Having completed their modernization and urbanization process, developed nations can more easily use advanced technological means to achieve a gradual decline of their per capita carbon dioxide emissions after these emissions have reached high levels. For developing nations, which are still in the process of industrialization and modernization, per capita emissions are expected to keep rising in the foreseeable future.
That makes it necessary for the world to adopt a "differentiated approach" when discussing different countries' responsibility for GHG emissions and mapping out a new climate pact for the post-Kyoto era.
The author is a researcher from the Institute of American Studies at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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