| On November 25, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted the State Council Standing Committee conference to arrange work on climate change measures. The conference produced goals for greenhouse emissions reductions by 2020 and also the corresponding policy, measures and actions to take.
At the conference it was pointed out that, coping properly with climate change was important to China's economic and social development as well as the world population's wellbeing and long-term development. As a responsible developing country, China advocates effective international cooperation in coping with global climate change. China will stick to the basic framework of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol, the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility." China advocates the strict pursuit of the authorization of the Bali Roadmap, the full, effective and sustained implementation of the convention and the Kyoto Protocol, and will make efforts to promote technology transfer and financial support, so as to help the Copenhagen Conference to achieve a positive result.
It was pointed out in the conference that in the recent United Nations Climate Change Summit, President Hu Jintao, on behalf of the Chinese Government, expressed China's principles and standpoint and explicitly pointed out major measures China would take in coping with climate change. China's National People's Congress made a resolution on actively responding to climate change. China's stance has won full understanding and extensive agreement from the rest of the world.
China has always attached great importance to climate change and unswervingly follows a road of sustainable development. Based on its national conditions, China has formulated national schemes to cope with climate change, and is actively promoting economic and industrial restructuring, optimizing energy composition, implementing policies to encourage energy conservation and raise energy efficiency, continuously increasing investments in scientific research and development in dealing with climate change. Great efforts have been made in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and increasing forest carbon sink, thus achieving positive results.
In the face of the severe challenge of climate change, China must spare no efforts to implement scientific concepts of development and take stronger measures and actions to accelerate the transformation of growth modes, so as to control greenhouse gas emissions and build an energy-saving and environmentally friendly society. It was decided at the conference that by 2020 carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP should decrease by 40-45 percent compared with 2005. Carbon dioxide emissions as a restrictive index will be factored into short- and long-term planning for national economic and social development. Corresponding domestic statistical, supervisory and assessment methods will be formulated. It was also decided at the conference that through development of renewable resources and the construction of nuclear power plants by 2020, non-fossil energy will account for 15 percent of primary energy consumption; through tree planting and improved forest management, forest coverage will have increased by 40 million hectares than 2005, with forest volume increasing by 1.3 billion cubic meters from 2005. This is an independent action taken by China on the basis of its own national conditions and a great effort to deal with global climate change.
It was stressed at the conference China is now at a critical point of all round development toward being a relatively well-off society and at an important stage of industrialization and accelerated urbanization. Thus, China is under heavy pressure for economic development and improvement of livelihoods. With a huge population, China is still on a relatively low rung of economic development and conflicts in the country's economic structure are still striking. Coal is still the major player in China's energy composition, and energy demand will keep rising, so the country is still faced with huge pressure and difficulties in controlling greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve the objectives outlined above, unremitting efforts are necessary.
It was also put forward at the conference that climate change work must be guided to promote scientific development and promote ecological improvement. Economic development and environmental protection should be taken into account and attention should also be paid to both domestic and external situations and the coordination of ways to handle present demands and long-term interests. The dealing with climate change is a major strategy in national economic and social development. We should strengthen research and development of low carbon and zero carbon technologies and investment in clean coal, renewable resources, advanced nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage technologies. Efforts should be made to speed up the construction of industrial, architectural and transport systems characterized by low carbon. We should also formulate supportive standards for laws and regulations to improve polices and measures in fiscal affairs, taxation, pricing and financial policies and also management and supervisory mechanisms. We should also strengthen international cooperation to effectively impart, digest and absorb advanced low carbon and climate-friendly technologies, so as to improve China's capability to deal with climate change. The whole of society needs to strengthen awareness of climate change and speed up the development of a green way of living and consumption based on low carbon emissions. |
