China Lawmakers Call For Action On Climate Change
Date: 28-Aug-09
Country: CHINA
Author: Chris Buckley
China Lawmakers Call For Action On Climate Change Photo: REUTERS
Smoke billows from the chimneys at a coking factory in
Changzhi, Shanxi province November 13, 2008.
Photo: REUTERS
BEIJING - Chinese legislators said on Thursday that their country will
"strive to control greenhouse gas emissions" and consider new laws to
fight climate change, while warning against using the issue to raise
trade barriers.
The positions were laid out in a resolution passed by the Standing
Committee of the National People's Congress, or parliament, adding to a
flurry of statements on climate change from China, the world's biggest
emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases.
"We must strengthen energy-saving and emissions reduction, striving to
control emissions of greenhouse gases," said the resolution, urging more
support for wind, solar and other forms of clean energy.
China will "draft laws and regulations based on practical circumstances
to provide more vigorous legal backing for fighting climate change,"
said the resolution, which was issued to journalists.
But it also warned wealthy nations not to use the issue of climate
change to impose any form of trade protection.
Some U.S. lawmakers have said products from China and other big emitters
should face possible adjustment measures if these countries' governments
do not do more to curtail greenhouse gas emissions in coming years.
The statement from China's Communist Party-controlled legislature came
just over 100 days before nations meet in Copenhagen seeking to agree on
a new international pact on global warming.
The NPC is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, and the Standing
Committee is the inner council that meets more often than the annual
full parliament session. NPC resolutions are political statements that
do not have any binding legal force.
The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012 and
negotiations on a replacement accord are scheduled to conclude in
Copenhagen in December.
China is already the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gas from
human activities, especially carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels
such as coal and oil.
These gases absorb infrared radiation originating from the sun, and
their growing presence is retaining more heat in the atmosphere and so
altering the climate.
China's emissions of greenhouse gases per person are still much lower
than the developed world's per capita average, and Beijing has insisted
it will not accept mandatory emissions caps in any new agreement. The
current Kyoto Protocol does not demand caps for developing countries.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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