China has no
intention of capping its greenhouse gas emissions even as
authorities are committed to realizing the nation’s target to
reduce carbon intensity through new policies and measures, the
country’s top climate change negotiators said yesterday.

The negotiators also warned that rich and developing countries
have little hope of overcoming key disagreements over how to fight
global warming.

China “could not and should not” set an upper limit on
greenhouse gas emissions at the current phase, said Su Wei, the
chief negotiator of China for climate change talks in Copenhagen,
at a meeting in Beijing on China’s climate change policies in the
post-Copenhagen era.

Su, who is also director of the department of combating climate
change under the National Development and Reform Commission, said
that China’s greenhouse gas emissions have to grow correspondingly
as the country still has a long way to go in improving people’s
livelihoods and eradicating poverty.

The country’s carbon dioxide emissions per capita is also
relatively low compared to developed countries and China has not
contributed much to climate change because of its short history as
an industrial nation, he said.

However, China will spare no
effort to adopt proactive measures to fight the negative effects
caused by global warming and achieve the country’s ambitious goal
of cutting carbon intensity per GDP unit by 40 to 45 percent by
2020, a voluntary target China pledged last November, he
said.

“The targets for carbon intensity reduction will be included in
the 12th and 13th five-year plans (2011-15; 2016-20) as a binding
index,” he said. The targets remain a very challenging task for
China, as its secondary industry comprises a large part of the
country’s industrial structure, said Ma Zhong, a professor at the
Renmin University of China.

The secondary industry accounted for 46.8 percent of China’s
2009 general domestic income, official statistics showed.

Carbon emissions caused by manufacturing
sectors account for about two-thirds of total emissions in
developing countries, while emissions of the service sector have
the same ratio in developed countries, researchers have said.

China will introduce a carbon emissions check system for the
steel industry and a fuel efficiency management system for
automotive products, as well as initiate demonstration projects in
the petrochemical industry, Premier Wen Jiabao said at an executive
meeting of the State Council, China’s Cabinet, yesterday.

Similarly, fighting climate change was highlighted as a major
national strategy as well as an important opportunity for economic
structure adjustment by the country’s top leadership at a meeting
on Tuesday.

Many hope a legally binding climate change treaty, which failed
to be signed at the Copenhagen conference, will be finalized at a
UN meeting in Mexico in December. Yu Qingtai, China’s special
representative for climate change negotiations, said yesterday that
players could face hard times in this year’s climate
negotiations.

Developed countries are unlikely to change their tune and will
continue to be reluctant in promising emission cuts and utilizing
green funds, he said. They will also pressure developing countries
into shouldering unreasonable responsibilities and the so-called
new emerging big countries will remain their main targets, he
said.

Yu said China will stick to the principle of “common but
differentiated responsibilities” and work together with
international communities, though a divergence of views on vital
issues will be a long-standing problem.

A vast majority of developing countries are in the initial or
middle stage of industrialization, which is characterized by high
carbon intensity, while rich countries have completed
industrialization and transferred a large part of manufacturing
functions to developing countries, said Qi Ye, a professor of
Tsinghua University.

“Both developed and developing countries are facing heavy costs
in efforts of cutting emissions. Developed countries are striving
to sustain their vested interests while developing countries are
seeking the rights for development,” said Pan Jiahua, a senior
researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Developing countries will lose their future edge in terms of
development speed, scale and level if they have no space for
emissions, Pan said.