Chapter 16
Environment: China Going Its Own Way
Environment represents one more major area where Chinese and Western interests clash.
China has become the world’s number one polluter. According to some estimates, as of 2007, it emitted 14 percent more greenhouse gases than the United States (Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations 2009).
At the global climate change talks held within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the West has been urging Beijing to set binding numerical targets for the reduction of its carbon dioxide emissions as part of the post-Kyoto Protocol global deal. China, naturally, disagrees and, along with other developing nations, insists on a fundamentally different approach.
Overall, a lot of doubts remain about the way today’s key environmental issues are addressed at the global level.
Global Climate Talks: Doubts Remain If Not Increase
To begin with, the relevance of the UNFCCC talks themselves looks questionable. There is a strong impression that they have been hastily arranged, poorly prepared, and based on doubtful premises.
Their goal is to cut the emissions of carbon dioxide in order to keep the global temperature increase within at least two degrees Celsius compared to the preindustrial period. However, there is still no clear and internationally accepted scientific evidence that emission of CO2 is the major factor of global warming—on the contrary, recently we hear a lot of arguments against this assumption. Even some prominent ...
