ENVIRONMENT

China Tables Tough Agenda For Copenhagen BY RAMESH JAURA IDN With an eye on the critical Copenhagen climate change conference in December, China is asking industrial countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions by no less than 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

In a new document posted on the website of the country's economic policy-making National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China is also calling upon the rich countries to provide at least 0.5 to 1 percent of their annual gross domestic product to help developing countries grapple with climate change.

China considers these two objectives significant for implementing the Bali Roadmap emerging from the climate change conference 2007 in Indonesia, which consists of a number of forward-looking decisions that represent the various tracks essential to reaching a secure climate future.

The document says: "International negotiations are underway to give effect to the Bali Roadmap to enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and its Kyoto Protocol, aiming at reaching a positive outcome" at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.

NDRC declares that China will "continue to play an active and constructive role" in such negotiations.

China does not accept the view expressed in media reports that the no less than 40 percent target is on the peak of the 25-40 percent emissions reductions proposed in the Bali Roadmap and that the Bali conference did not endorse any specific goal.

Nor does it agree that the Roadmap does not contain any financial commitments on the part of rich developed nations to help poor developing countries cope with climate change.

China, like India, rejects carbon caps arguing that the U.S. and other industrial nations should first fulfil their historical responsibility. It argues that both the emissions reductions and financial target derive from the Bali Roadmap.

China's national development commission says that the Roadmap affirms the mandate to enhance the implementation of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol to secure the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention by making corresponding arrangements in terms of mitigation, adaption, technology transfer and financial support.

The Roadmap also confirms the mandate to determine further quantified emission reduction targets for developed countries for the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol.

COMMON BUT DIFFERENTIATED RESPONSIBILITIES

The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities obliges developed countries to be accountable for their historical cumulative – and current high per capita – emissions to change their unsustainable way of life and to substantially reduce their emissions.

At the same time, it requires them to provide financial support and transfer technology to developing countries. Developing countries on their part will, in pursuing economic development and poverty eradication, take proactive measures to adapt to and mitigate climate change, says the document.

China's NDRC considers sustainable development both the means and the end of effectively addressing climate change. "Within the overall framework of sustainable development, economic development, poverty eradication and climate protection should be considered in a holistic and integrated manner so as to reach a win-win solution and to ensure developing countries to secure their right to development."

Also, mitigation and adaption are integral components of combating climate change and should be given equal treatment. Compared with mitigation that is an arduous task over a longer time horizon, the need for adaption is more real and urgent to developing countries, the NDRC says.

Financing and technology are indispensible means to achieve mitigation and adaptation. "The fulfilment of commitments by developed countries to provide financing, technology transfer and capacity building support to developing countries is a condition sine qua non for developing countries to effectively mitigate and adapt to climate change," it adds.

China's national commission further argues that a shared vision for long-term cooperative action is to enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the UNFCCC to achieve its ultimate objective.

In view of this, the goal for long-term cooperative action should be a comprehensive one, consisting of sustainable development, mitigation, adaptation, financing and technology. "In terms of mitigation, developed countries as a whole shall, as their mid-term targets, reduce their GHG emissions by at least 40 percent below their 1990 level by 2020."

It is also a part of the "shared vision" that to effectively operationalize the financial mechanism under the UNFCCC, an adaptation fund, a mitigation fund, a multilateral technology acquisition fund and a capacity building fund shall be established.

Accordingly, the governance of these Funds should be under the authority and guidance of the COP (conference of parties to the UNFCCC) with equitable and balanced representation of all countries in a transparent and efficient manner. The Funds should be managed with easy accessibility and low administrative cost.

"It is the commitment on the part of the governments of the developed country Parties to provide new, additional, adequate and predictable financial resources. Financial resources from private sectors and the carbon market could be complementary to those provided by the developed country Parties," says NDRC, adding that the developed country parties are required to make "assessed contributions with a certain percentage of their annual GDP, e.g. 0.5-1 percent, to the above-mentioned Funds." 

Ramesh Jaura is chief editor of the Globalom Media group, president of Euforic-Europe's Forum on International Cooperation in Maastricht (The Netherlands) and Director of IPS-Inter Press Service Europe in Berlin. This is published in arrangement with Voices of the South on Globalization. (End/2009)