14 DAY TRIAL // China announced on Thursday that its efforts of combating global warming and climate change would not be weakened by the global financial crisis, and that the country would respect its promise of employing measures that were bound to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and methane the Asian nations pumped into the atmosphere every year. The announcement was made just before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing, another stop in her Asian tour.
“We have all along paid great attention to the problem of climate change, and have, with a responsible attitude, taken a series of helpful policy measures. Although we have been affected by the global economic crisis, the Chinese government's resolve to tackle climate change has not changed, and our actions have not weakened,” Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told at a news conference today.
Clinton's visit to the country will most likely have an environmental component as well, seeing how it was only recently that China moved ahead of the United States and became the largest polluter in the world, even though, in theory, its emissions per capita were far lower than those of the Americans or the Australians.
And seeing how president Obama seems genuinely interested in solving the climate problem, it's very likely that this topic will be brought up during the diplomatic talks.
“We are willing to work together with international society to push the Copenhagen talks forward and make sure they have a positive outcome,” the spokeswoman added, without elaborating on the matter. At the end of this year, leaders of the world are to meet again in Copenhagen, as they did in Poznan a few months ago, in order to discuss several sets of measures aimed at reducing the influence of global warming on the global ecosystems.
However, talks are expected to be difficult, seeing how the financial crisis will have many countries that last year pledged to join the international effort quit the race, on account of them not being able to sustain their previous promises. In addition, emerging powers such as China and India have already stated that they will not accept limitations on the amounts of carbon dioxide they release, and that developed countries cannot expect them to quit their industrialization process, when the US or the UK have had centuries to develop to the point they are now.
The two Asian nations insist that developed countries have to help those in the third world with money and technology, before they make any kind of suggestions about reducing the level of production. Both Chinese and Indian officials made this abundantly clear, and a pact meant to replace the Kyoto Protocol signed without the two powers is not really of too much value.