China is gaining kudos for its role in the Bali global warming talks. From the Financial Times:
China’s increasingly progressive approach to climate change and a growing acceptance of the science behind the threat are key factors behind better-than-expected progress in negotiations to mould a global consensus on the issue, delegates and United Nations officials said yesterday.
Many people cautioned that Beijing’s refusal to budge on developing countries’ responsibilities in cutting greenhouse gas emissions still needed to be resolved if the goal of the two-week UN conference in Bali – a clearly defined, two-year negotiating roadmap to replace the Kyoto protocol – is to be agreed by Friday. [Full text]
Meanwhile, the International Herald Tribune reports that “China, West squabble over emissions targets at Bali climate meeting”:
China, which some believe has surpassed the United States as the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, questioned the fairness of binding cuts when its per capita emissions are about one-sixth of America’s. It said, too, that it has only been pumping pollutants into the atmosphere for a few decades, whereas the West has done so for hundreds of years.
“China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty,” said Su Wei, a top climate expert for the government and member of its delegation at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali. [Full text]
