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Emissions reduction must be global

By Zhang Jianyu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-02 07:55

Solving the problem of climate change by stabilizing the rate of temperature change requires engaging both the United States and China in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a recent analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund, if the 2C global average change threshold is considered to be necessary to reduce significant risks of dangerous climate change impacts, aggregate global emissions must begin to decline by 2015-2020 if the target for temperature change is to be reached.

Reductions in developed nations alone, unless unrealistically deep, are insufficient to reduce global emissions overall in the face of emissions growth in developing nations. While controlling greenhouse gas emissions in the US is necessary in order to address climate change, given China's substantial emissions, it is not sufficient.

So when climate change was listed as one of the key topics of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's trip to China and recently appointed US Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern was brought on board, lots of attention was placed on the outcomes and even potential breakthroughs that could be achieved between the two countries. People all over the world understand that the efforts of both the US and China over the next decades to cut greenhouse gas emissions will play a large part in determining the ultimate outcome of this global campaign.

Two key messages came out of the trip and they were emphasized at different occasions during it - one is that clean energy and climate change are among the most important issues that will be covered in the to-be-established two-track strategic and economic dialogue between the two countries, the other is that although climate change amounts to a daunting challenge, it also presents enormous opportunities in the transformation from a high to a low carbon base.

Substantial progress has been made in building public and political support for greenhouse gas control in the US. The inauguration of the Obama administration is expected to bring the nation's climate change campaign onto a new footing. This momentum, which has taken several decades to build in the United States, has started to appear in China.

To its credit, China has done more in the past decade to officially recognize its role in global warming than most of its peers in the developing world, and these kinds of actions are being taken more frequently.

China's overall objectives were set out in the White Paper on China's Climate Change Actions and Policies and China was able to announce that through its energy efficiency program alone it reduced 335 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2006 and 2007. Ambitious domestic energy targets have provided China with incentives to seek more innovative tools to tackle environmental challenges.

The importance of market-based mechanisms such as emissions trading has attracted the attention of Chinese think tanks and policymakers. Recently, Chinese researchers published a province-by-province assessment of their net carbon footprint by calculating industrial emissions and sequestration in forests. The interesting aspect of the study was the conclusion that provinces with a carbon deficit should purchase from those with an excess within a "carbon source - carbon sink" trading program.

China is a responsible nation and Chinese leaders understand that a significant new wave of innovation toward a low carbon economy "the green road" is being launched globally.

The author is program manager of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) China Program