A New Year and an old theme. The Year of the Ox has not brought a change to China’s public stance on climate change negotiations. It is still a little early in the process to separate public posturing from final negotiating positions, but China is not budging yet off its “no limits” theme. The Financial Times reports, based on an interview with Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao during his visit to England, that
China’s new prominence is coming with new responsibilities, yet Wen is keen not to be pushed into too many expensive commitments. He plays down any idea that China will use a large slice of its reserves to recapitalise international financial institutions, notably the IMF. Any process of reforming the IMF should start not with capital injections but with reorganising its voting rights to give developing countries a bigger role, he says. Wen also stresses that China is still a relatively poor nation with huge development challenges ahead, which will limit its generosity.
He uses the same argument to push back against pressure to sign up for carbon emission cuts under the negotiations for the revised Kyoto treaty, which are due to be completed at Copenhagen later this year. China will continue to set itself targets for improving its energy efficiency, he says. But it would be difficult for a developing nation “to undertake quantified measures to reduce our emissions”.
On a related issue, does it strike anyone else as odd that important UN staff are weighing in publicly with their own opinions as to how the Copenhagen negotiations should proceed? Caijing recently published an article “Crucial Decisions on Climate Change in 2009“ which included an interview with Gao Feng, former chief negotiator for China but now the director of the legal department of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat.
“No one should expect developing countries to accept emission cuts as early as Copenhagen. This simply won’t happen,” said Gao.
In Gao’s mind, if developing countries have the flexibility to take voluntary actions now, new technologies transferred from and capital provided by developed countries will help them build their capacity to for clean energy and emissions cuts, making it much easier to negotiate binding targets later on. And smooth negotiations are the key.
Perhaps Mr. Gao has trouble recollecting by whom he is currently employed. In any event, such comments do not seem helpful to the process.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Greg // Feb 4, 2009 at 3:30 am
That is why the UN is such an abysmal failure.
2 Chrissy // Feb 4, 2009 at 10:23 am
After reading, “Agenda For A Sustainable Agenda”, edited by John Dernbach, I like the way the book is organized into different subject areas—including forestry, higher education, energy consumption , and state governance. You can read the chapters that interest you, and learn what you want to learn, without having to read them all.
3 Per Meilstrup // Feb 5, 2009 at 6:09 am
No surprises here. If I was leading my country into negotiations of this importance, I would also be very hesitant to give away anything NOW. I would wait for the final phase, where I could really get something in return. It is certainly not unthinkable that China will move - but - check out http://www.copenhagenclimatecouncil.com/get-informed/points-of-view/china-going-for-the-green-gold.html
4 cmcelwee // Feb 5, 2009 at 11:01 am
Per, I agree that this could all be a negotiating stunt, and it is not a bad one. If the issue was not so important we could all sit back and watch it unfold like a chess game. I think it is too important, however, and I hope that we will start seeing some more creative solutions from China soon. If you insist that you are entitled to recognition as an emerging world leader, you occasionally have to lead.
P.S. The last sentence of you comment was cut off for some reason, so I took the liberty of deleting it so as not to detract from the balance of your comment.
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