China reels under a barrage of criticism
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - China is not happy. This is how one of the Chinese state-sanctioned
newspapers summed up Beijing's feelings about the week spent negotiating on
climate change in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
After a very public showdown with the United States in the early days of the
global climate talks, China found itself attacked by smaller developing
countries for benefiting more than anyone else from carbon credit funding. And
as the Friday deadline for a deal approaches, Beijing has been seen deflecting
the accusation that it was the stumbling block to reaching a deal.
Describing the fighting camps in Copenhagen in terms borrowed from the famous Art
of War by ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, the China Times
newspaper said Beijing's gloom about the
talks was growing and there was no sign of any "ceasefire" in sight.
The ongoing United Nations climate change conference, which began on December
7, is now in its final phase. Within government circles and environmental
lobbies alike, there is clear awareness of the importance of China's role in
reaching an agreement.
"This is the first time for China to work on green cooperation
internationally," says Hu Angang, prominent economist and campaigner for
low-carbon future. "Beijing knows that if we succeed, then the world succeeds;
if China fails, then the world fails."
The talks have reached an impasse due to long-standing rifts between rich and
poor countries, and a fresh division that has emerged among developing
countries. China has featured prominently in both standoffs and Beijing appears
worried that it is becoming a target of criticism over the deadlock.
"People will say 'if there is no deal, China is to blame'," Deputy Foreign
Minister He Yafei said in an interview with the Financial Times published this
week. "This is a trick played by developed countries. They have to look at
their own position and can't use China as an excuse. China will not be an
obstacle [to a deal]."
On Tuesday, China accused developed countries of backsliding on what it said
were their obligations to fight climate change and warned that climate
negotiations had entered a critical stage.
In sharp comments made at a press briefing in Beijing, a Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said there had been "some regression" on the part of
developed countries on their position regarding financial support. The change
in their position "will hamper the Copenhagen conference", she said.
China and the US - the world's two largest carbon polluters - have waged a war
of words at Copenhagen. They have clashed on key issues such as how to share
out the burden of slashing greenhouse gases (GHGs) and whether the United
States owes developing countries a "climate debt".
Beijing says Western nations have built their prosperity on fossil fuels and
need to shoulder the responsibility for reducing the growth of global GHG
emissions. The International Atomic Agency - an intergovernmental forum on
nuclear energy - however, projects that nearly all the growth in those gases
over the next two decades will come from emerging economies and half of it from
China.
The US has rejected the idea of "climate reparations" and questioned the need
for China - now the fastest-growing economy in the world - to receive a portion
of the rich nations' funding to help developing countries mitigate climate
change.
"I don't envision public funds - certainly not from the United States - going
to China," Todd Stern, the chief US climate negotiator, told a press briefing
in Copenhagen last week. While poorer developing countries still needed Western
help to nurture clean-energy technologies, this was no longer the case with
China, he argued.
China has vowed to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product
by 40% to 45% by 2020, but experts say, given economic growth projections, its
emissions could still double compared to 2005 levels.
The country has appeared in Copenhagen championing the interests of the
developing nations but it has faced rows among its own lobby. Dozens of the
poorest countries led by the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu have called for
mandatory caps on greenhouse gases for major emerging economies such as China
starting in 2013.
China has been consistently refusing binding emissions caps for fears it would
hurt its spectacular economic rise. It reiterated this position in Copenhagen.
But in a gesture aimed at mending relations with its underdeveloped allies,
Beijing hinted it was willing to give up its share of funding provided by rich
nations to help poorer countries tackle climate change.
"Financial resources for the efforts of developing countries [to combat climate
change are] a legal obligation. That does not mean China will take a share -
probably not. We do not expect money will flow from the US, Britain and others
to China," He Yafei told the Financial Times.
Analysts believe the statement was a sign of Beijing's unease over the fragile
unity of developing countries and the implications of the row for the progress
of the talks.
"The climate talks will display China's new world view," insists Qing Hong,
researcher with the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based
think-tank.
"Contrary to some arguments, China is not always adhering only to its own
national interests. Quite the opposite, China will show the international
community that in the case of climate change its considerations transcend its
national boundaries," he says.
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