[Connie] Hedegaard cited its latest five-year plan, which envisages major pilot projects to test market-based “cap and trade” emissions control systems.

“I believe China has realised there is a limit to how much it can grow its economy without taking into consideration energy considerations, environmental considerations, air pollution, water quality, things like that,” she said.

“In the end it’s also about social stability, because when China now has had some 400 million citizens entering the middle class, they also demand clean water and air their children can breathe, like others will do.”

Hedegaard said China had for the first time introduced a carbon target “because they can see that it’s necessary, but it’s very much because they can see it benefits their own economy” ….

“We (Europe) really believe that to pursue this green growth strategy is the way to create growth in the 21st century,” she said.

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Post tags: carbon caps, climate change, emissions, EU, middle class, social stability
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China is both desperate and ambitious enough to try almost anything. The widely trailed move towards a cap-and-trade system will provide an extra tool for China to achieve its Copenhagen commitment to reduce carbon emissions relative to economic growth by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2020 ….

Existing schemes are clearly flawed. But by opting out, the US is losing its ability to influence reform, just as China begins to establish what could become a rival trading system. Beijing has positioned itself cleverly.

In the years ahead, its influence will grow in both renewable technology and climate finance. This has prompted the analyst Søren Lütken to talk of an emerging Grand Chinese Climate Scheme.

It is far from certain that this will be successful. Corruption, imprecision and inexperience are major hurdles that China has yet to overcome in establishing a cap-and-trade scheme. Lobby groups could water down plans that will cost industry money. As in the US, the economy will remain dependent on fossil fuels for many decades.

Yet compared to the US, China seems to have a clearer sense of direction, greater flexibility and a willingness to move.

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Post tags: carbon credits, carbon emissions, Copenhagen climate change conference, emissions, environment, EU, United States
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The use of carbon permits from industrial gas projects in China could be banned because of their “total lack of environmental integrity”, the climate change commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, has told the Guardian.

Billions of euros’ worth of the controversial permits were used between 2008-09 in the European Union’s emission trading scheme (ETS), in which companies must exchange pollution permits for any emissions produced. The ETS allows some of those permits to be bought in from developing countries.

In June, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said many Chinese chemical companies were manufacturing HCFC-22 primarily to earn the money from destroying HFC-23, which can be five times the value of the refrigerant gas the plants are ostensibly set up to create.

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Post tags: chemical plant, emissions, EU, exporting pollution
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China said developed nations must cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels, according to a document outlining its stance ahead of December climate talks in Copenhagen.

China is also asking rich countries to donate at least 0.5% to 1% of their annual gross domestic product to help poorer countries cope with climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, it said in the document, which was posted on the Web site of the National Development and Reform Commission, the economic policy-making body that governs China’s greenhouse gas emissions policy.

International negotiators are hoping to conclude a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012, in an effort to limit the growth of global-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The 40% target represents the high end of cuts in emissions mentioned in the 2007 Bali roadmap, which stopped short of endorsing a specific target.

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Post tags: carbon emissions, emissions, GDP growth, global warming, greenhouse emissions
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A study by Peking University said that increased summer rains, efforts to plant forests, an expansion of shrubland, shifts in crop use and higher bamboo mass soaked up between 28 and 37 percent of industrial emissions in the 1980s and 1990s.

The study gave the first estimate of the impact of plants in offsetting carbon dioxide emissions in China, which has recently overtaken the United States as top emitter. Plants soak up carbon as they grow and release it when they burn or rot.

The report, in the journal Nature, also said that China’s plants and soils soaked up more carbon per square metre than in Europe but less than in the United States.

But a U.S. scientist said the percentage of emissions absorbed by plants was falling because a surge in economic growth in recent years meant China’s industrial emissions were expanding faster than vegetation.

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Post tags: carbon dioxide, emissions, forests
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China, with an economic boom and no emissions limits, is expected to replace the U.S. in 2008 as the world’s biggest air polluter. That’s spurring calls for it to join Japan, Britain and other developed nations that already have greenhouse-gas caps.

“In the developing countries there are no targets, and there are more than 100 countries,” Takiguchi said in a telephone interview from Tokyo. “The world has changed, so we need more categories, and we propose differentiation.”

Japan’s proposal to the United Nations, which is not formally endorsed by the U.S., would divide the developing world into three groups: countries most vulnerable to climate change, such as small islands at risk of rising sea levels; an intermediate group; and the most-polluting of the developing nations. The last group would be forced to slash emissions based on pollution per capita or per unit of economic output, Takiguchi said, without naming specific countries.

However, China has rejected carbon emissions caps according to ClimateBiz:

China has long rejected emissions caps and was exempt from the Kyoto Protocol, a point of contention for the U.S., which pulled out of the treaty. A United Nations meeting will take place in Poland in December that is part of the ongoing negotiations on a climate change treaty that will succeed Kyoto. There is also a U.N.-backed conference in Beijing this month to promote the exchange of green technologies, the Wall Street Journal reported.

While China admits to its emission contribution, it demands developed countries to provide technologies and resources in the fight against climate change according to the follow CDT articles here and here.

© Xiao Niu for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: climate change, emissions, emissions standards
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The city of Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in south-central China, is preparing to launch an emissions trading scheme, its mayor said on Tuesday.

Changsha’s plan is a local version of a tentative outline drawn up by the central bank, for a domestic emissions trading scheme that could cover everything from greenhouse gases to water pollutants, and speed China’s push for greener growth.

Changsha would assign its local districts quotas for dust, carbon dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution, Zhang Jianfei told a news conference.

“We are considering innovations like an emissions trading market,” Zhang said, as he listed other pollution-reducing measures like taxation and pricing schemes.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Changsha, emissions, environmental protection, Hunan
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China is planning to build bigger strategic reserves of key energy resources, such as petroleum and uranium, and create an energy ministry, according to a draft law published yesterday.

However, the document made little mention of the need to develop policies to tackle soaring emissions of greenhouse gases.

Energy security emerged as a key focus for the legislation, which recommends that Chinese oil companies, such as Petrochina and Sinopec, be forced to establish their own govern-ment-managed stockpiles to augment an existing national reserve scheme. [Full Text]

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Post tags: emissions, energy
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China said Thursday it was making progress in its efforts to improve the nation’s energy efficiency and cut pollution emissions, but acknowledged that not enough was being done.

“The results of our energy consumption and emission reduction (efforts) are starting to show,” Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development Reform Commission, told a press briefing.

“But the situation is still grave… we have not yet completely reached our targets and if this trend doesn’t reverse, it will have a great impact on our… goals.” [Full Text]

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Post tags: air pollution, emissions, energy conservation
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China’s government plans to pour billions of dollars into special projects to help meet the country’s energy-saving targets. Local officials are also about to come under increased pressure to toe the government line to meet the targets, otherwise their political futures could be in jeopardy.

A top official from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reaffirmed China’s commitment to cutting energy use and emissions on making a report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Sunday. “It’s vital to cut energy use,” Ma Kai, the NDRC minister said. “If we don’t hasten our pace, it will be difficult to meet the targets this year.” [Full Text]

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Post tags: emissions, energy conservation, energy demand, NDRC
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