Hope for a post-Kyoto agreement?

China is prepared to make a climate deal

Posted by Joseph Romm (Guest Contributor) at 4:23 PM on 13 Nov 2007

Potentially a very big deal -- The Independent reports "China 'will agree to cut its carbon emissions'":

China, now the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, will eventually agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country's leading environmentalists forecast yesterday -- but only on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world.

When is eventually?

The Chinese would be very unlikely to set their own unilateral target for reducing CO2, said Professor C S Kiang, the founding dean of the College of Environmental Science at the University of Beijing. But they would join in the next, post-2012 stage of the Kyoto protocol, the international climate change treaty, and seek to reduce their emissions to a definite figure, as long as this was part of a global agreement that involved all countries acting together -- including the US -- and the transfer to China of modern energy technology, he said.

Now, Kiang says, all the world needs is a new U.S. President:

He also suggested no agreement would be possible until after next year's US election. President George Bush's withdrawal of the US from Kyoto in 2001, with the abandonment of US climate targets, has been a major stumbling block to developing countries. "But by 2009-10, we might see light at the end of the tunnel," Professor Kiang said.

Let's hope so.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

For story: Hope for a post-Kyoto agreement?
3 Comments | Post a Comment

Close Read

Wait, before we smile too soon: The article didn't announce any action by the Chinese government, but rather the "forecast" of a Chinese environmentalist. That's a different category of "news." The Independent's original headline is misleading.

But no doubt about it, the whole world is calling for the U.S. to show more leadership on global warming.

Christina Larson

by Christina Larson at 4:45 PM on 13 Nov 2007

Unlikely

It is unlikely that ANY developing nation will make public commitments prior to negotiations. If you tell everyone what you are going to do, then there is no "negotiation".

And given the "we won't even talk about it" posture of the US government, to expect promises from developing nations first, is, well not going to happen.

It's rather like the corporate leaders saying they won't negotiate until the unions capitulate.

Or the rich man saying he won't discuss climate change until the poor man has agreed to starve to death.

The onus for solving American Sponsored Global Warming is on the US. It has lagged by every leading indicator!!

patrick in beijing

by bookerly at 9:38 PM on 13 Nov 2007

Where are scientists like Galileo and Joe Romm?

I find it irresistible not to at least take a moment to wonder aloud what Galileo is doing tonight. My hope would be that his head is NOT spinning in his grave. How can Galileo possibly find peace when so many top-rank scientists refuse to speak out clearly regarding whatsoever they believe to be true about the distinctly human predicament presented to humanity in our time by certain unbridled activities of the human species, here and now engulfing the planetary home God has blessed us to inhabit?

Where are the scientists willing to support the good science being presented in the solid scientific observations and empirical data from the likes of Joseph Romm? Where are the scientists who will NOT consensually validate specious thinking that provides nothing more than blind support for whatever is politically convenient, economically expedient, religiously tolerated and the socially agreeable now?

Perhaps the something in the great efforts of Joe will give Galileo a moment of peace.

Sincerely,

Steve

Steven Earl Salmony, Ph.D., M.P.A.
AWAREness Campaign on the Human Population
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/

by stevenearlsalmony at 7:16 AM on 14 Nov 2007

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