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Climate change tops agenda during Clinton's China visit

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-20 16:57

Experts said tackling climate change will be one of the major topics in the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming China visit. China and the United States have great potential in their cooperation.

According to media reports, Clinton and other senior officials in the Obama administration all hope to find new fields of cooperation, in particular, tackling climate change and environmental protection, so as to further promote China-US relations.

Related readings:  Crisis not to weaken fight for a green world  US-China co-op urged on climate change  Developed countries urged to help address climate change  Obama left with little time to curb global warming

"Our mutual economic engagement with China was evident during the economic growth of the past two decades. It is even clearer now in economic hard times and in the array of global challenges we face from nuclear security to climate change to pandemic disease and so much else," said Clinton in her speech at the Asia Society New York Headquarters on Feb 13.

Zhang Haibin, Director of the Center for International Organizations Studies of Peking University, said that climate change is high on Clinton's agenda of China visit. This shows the United States has stressed this issue and is ready to conduct concrete dialogues on comprehensive cooperation with the involved parties in China.

Luo Yong, Director-general of the Center for Climate Change of the China Meteorological Administration, told Xinhua that the two countries suffer intense severe weather events frequently. Therefore, "the common need to combat climate change can bring about further cooperation".

"Closer cooperation with China should be a high priority in a U.S. climate strategy," said Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, at a press conference held for the release of the report Common Challenge, Collaborative Response. The report maintains that US-China collaboration can help catalyze a new strategic transformation to a global, low-carbon economy that will be more sustainable while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

China's efforts

The Chinese government has attached great importance to the climate change issue and emphasizes global efforts on the issue. It holds that the problems of climate change should be resolved within the framework of sustainable development and in accordance with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", which is a core principle of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Both developed and developing countries are obligated to adopt measures to decelerate and adapt to climate change. But the level of their historical responsibilities, level and stage of development, and capabilities and ways of contribution vary.

Developed countries should be responsible for their accumulative emissions and current high per-capita emissions, and take the lead in reducing emissions, in addition to providing financial support and transferring technologies to developing countries.

The developing countries, while developing their economies and fighting poverty, should actively adopt adaptation measures, reduce their emissions to the lowest degree and fulfill their duties in addressing climate change.

China has enacted policies to address issue of climate change. According to a five-year plan, the energy consumption per-unit GDP is expected to drop by about 20 percent by 2010 compared to that of 2005.

Another target set by China is to raise the proportion of renewable energy (including large-scale hydropower) in the total energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010. Meanwhile, a 20-percent increase in the forest coverage rate is also expected to be realized.

Further cooperation

Zhang Haibin noted that the governments of the two countries can establish a sustainable dialogue mechanism on energy and climate change.The United States should provide related Official Development Assistance as well as preferential treatment on loans, financing and technology transfer to China.

"At the early stage, it is important to launch some large pilot projects. The experience of successful cases can be drawn upon and introduced gradually. Both determination and patience are essential for bilateral cooperation," he stressed.

Meanwhile, he highlighted non-governmental cooperation in tackling climate change, which cannot be neglected.

China and the United States have worked together actively in the field of fossil energy since the 1980s. The two countries signed the China-U.S. Fossil Energy Protocol in 1985. In 2006, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the U.S. Department of Energy reviewed the implementation of the protocol and four project annexes, namely, Cooperation in the Area of Power Systems, Cooperation in the Areas of Oil and Gas, and Cooperation in the Areas of Environmental Technologies and Climate Science, extending the validity term to 2010.

Zhang Haibin said that the two countries can make joint efforts in many fields, such as improvement of energy efficiency and development of new energies including wind power, solar power and biofuels. Moreover, the US experience on related research and management can be learned by China.

"The United States should communicate more with China to understand its concerns and reach consensus," he added.