Chinese Leaders Consider National Target on Carbon Emissions

A key figure on China’s climate negotiating team says China is for the first time considering a national target for reduced carbon emissions, a potentially significant development as world leaders prepare to craft a successor to the Kyoto agreement later this year in Copenhagen. Su Wei told the Guardian that China may consider a national target that would limit emissions relative to economic growth in a five-year plan beginning in 2011. “It’s an option,” he said. “We can very easily translate our [existing] energy reduction targets to carbon dioxide limitation.” Chinese leaders have so far rejected a cap on carbon emissions, arguing that Western nations should fix climate change since they have made by far the greatest contribution to it. Environmentalists noted the debate over carbon emissions in China, which is now the world’s biggest CO2 emitter, was at least moving into new areas, a significant step. “Chinese leaders recognize China’s responsibility,” said Hu Angang, a leading Chinese economist and green advocate. “The question is whether or not they make a public commitment about how much they will do and by when.”