According to Reuters and CNN, China tries to persuade developed nations to transfer more technology to developing countries to battle climate change and environmental issues in the two-day climate change conference in Beijing.
From AP Photo
From Friday, Beijing hosts a two-day conference to promote a new multi-billion-dollar international fund to invest in climate-friendly technology for the Third World, and it wants rich economies to devote as much as 1 percent of their GDPs to helping poor countries fight global warming.
China wants the clean energy and industry technology plan high in negotiations for a new climate change pact. Without such help, it argues, the smokestacks of developing countries will belch ever more greenhouse gases into the air.
But Beijing’s new demands also carry a wider message: that it is shedding its role as a retiring if high-stakes player at the table of environmental diplomacy. It wants a bigger say.
According to Clear The Air News Blog:
China’s greenhouse gas emissions have caught up with the United States and will not fall any time soon, a top Chinese official said on Wednesday, while warning of a huge economic blow from global warming.
The comments from Xie Zhenhua, a deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission who steers climate change policy, marked China’s first official acknowledgement that it could already be the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter.
