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No time to play with

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-25 15:50

China's promise to do its best with utmost sincerity to advance international negotiations on climate change highlighted the very urgency of tackling global warming on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities".

With the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol set to expire in 2012, negotiations on a replacement accord that is scheduled to conclude at Copenhagen in December have become more crucial than ever in the current global fight against climate change.

Though little progress has been made so far on a new pact to combat global warming, Xie Zhenhua, China's top official for world climate change negotiation, yesterday assured the country's top legislature, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, that China will act in the sprit of "being highly responsible for the survival and long-term development of mankind".

The Chinese government's unilateral efforts to cut energy consumption per unit GDP by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010 bears ample testimony to the country's commitment to sustainable development.

While a developing country like China is doing its utmost to make economic growth more energy efficient and green, developed countries should stop paying lip service to their responsibilities of helping the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Industrialized countries are still pressing developing countries to accept quantifiable targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions regardless of the huge gap of per capita emission between them as well as the critical need of economic growth for the later.

Such attempts to stress common responsibilities but ignore differentiated responsibilities can lead nowhere as countries move towards the upcoming climate convention in Copenhagen.

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Developed countries must understand that there is no time to play games on the issue of fighting climate change.

Developing countries will be able to adopt policies and measures "tailored to national conditions" to reduce emissions "within the framework of sustainable development" only after they have obtained necessary funding and technology support from developed nations.

Unfortunately, developed countries seemed to have talked too much but done too little in laying a solid foundation for joint global action against climate change.

If developed countries cannot immediately take the lead in quantifying their reduction of emissions and honor their commitments to support the developing ones with funds and technology transfer, the world risks running out of time to keep global warming below the all-important 2 C mark.

For any country that is really green-minded, it is high time to do the best it can to save the planet.