China have been accused of trying to block progress at the COP21 Paris climate change summit after delegates for the country were seen to be resisting various terms of proposed global agreements.
One of the measures proposed that Chinese delegates have been battling is the requirement for countries involved to conduct reviews of their carbon footprint every five years and to limit their emissions accordingly.
While they did not agree in principle to the reviews, the Chinese delegates wanted the target reductions of emissions to be voluntary rather than mandatory.
This particular proposal is being considered as something of a lynchpin to a wider global accord geared towards reducing emissions. As such, China’s resistance is being seen as a cause for anxiety, particularly in the light of President Xi Jinping’s comments prior to the summit that seemed to support a more green initiative that included a joint pledge with Barack Obama to fight climate change back in 2014.
Before the last week, it was thought that it would be India who would need to most convincing on the issue, after their energy minister made various comments describing the country’s need for reliance on coal production.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote in the Financial Times last week speaking of the need for more developed countries who had “powered their prosperity on fossil fuels” to allow for concessions for countries like India in terms of their development. However, Indian delegates has been seen to be far more willing to compromise than their Chinese counterparts in the actual negotiation rooms in Paris over the last week.
China are, as a country, responsible for more than 25% of the world’s carbon emissions, though exact figures are notoriously hard to source. China was declared a developing country back in 1992 and, according to the relevant regulations, they were not required to report on or limit their carbon emissions to the same extent as more developed countries. As a result, since then China has only released two carbon reports to the international community, the latest of which was published in 2012 using data from 2005. More reports have been made domestically but their accuracy has often been called into question.
All of this comes as a red alert has been declared regarding the dangerous levels of smog and pollution sweeping through China and Beijing in particular. The two issues are not one and the same; it is not C02 that is causing heavy smog over China, but they are certainly related since over use of fossil fuel based power plants are largely responsible for both.
China is not alone in fighting against restrictions that the global community is attempting to propose during the Paris talks. Saudi Arabian delegates explicitly and somewhat strangely made a plea for the oil-rich state to be made exempt from the call for regular mandatory reviews, citing the fact that “we are too poor.” These statements come from representatives of the world 15th biggest economy and the second largest oil producer (20mt behind Russia).
