Now, the numbers

After returning from the negotiating table in Bali at the end of last year, China along with developing countries now face an unprecedented challenge in efforts to reduce climate change.

About 190 countries attended the two-week UN Climate Change Conference, discussing an international plan to protect the planet from rising temperatures after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The most significant result at Bali was the creation of an ad hoc working group to discuss a wide range of issues under four "building blocks" to fight climate change - mitigation, adaptation, finance and investment, and technology transfer.

Crucial to developing countries will be the requirement for "nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development, supported by technology and enabled by financing, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner", the conference announced.

Yu Jie, advisor to the China program for the Germany's Heinrich Boell Foundation, says that although it is a non-binding system, agreeing to an action plan creates a big task for China - developing a national system for statistics.

"How to meet international rules for statistics in China to measure, report and verify the country's efforts in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is a tough mission for the current system," she says.

Parties to the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) must submit national reports on implementation of agreements.

They also must include information on emissions, the removal of greenhouse gases and details of activities to implement the commitment.

National reports contain information on its current circumstances, vulnerability, financial resources and transfer of technology, as well as education, training and public awareness.

But the most recent report that China submitted to the UNFCCC was based on figures from 1994 that do not reflect the current situation.

"If after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, China is required to hand in a report to the UNFCCC every year, the country only has five years to upgrade its statistics system. It will be a very hard task."

"However, I think China has already started preparation," Yu says.

Before the Bali meeting agencies in the country held a news conference in Beijing and pledged to improve accuracy in monitoring energy conservation.

The government said that 21 of the 31 provincial-level statistics bureaus have already formed divisions for gathering energy and resource data. The National Bureau of Statistics will join forces with the International Energy Agency this year to train statisticians from 300 city-level bureaus.

As well, statisticians from 15,000 key energy-consuming firms have already signed up for training.

China has vowed to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010, a move to save 600 million tons of coal equivalent and eliminate the emission of 1.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

"China deserves applause for its change from refusing any commitments to accepting the mitigation plan with certain conditions in Bali," Yu says.

"It is the first time that China showed its willingness to make its contribution in mitigation."

Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Committee and China's top negotiator at the conference, said in Bali that China would like to slow its GHG emission growth if rich countries can fulfill their obligations on technology transfer, financing and capacity-building.

"More important, China is like the flagship for the G77," Yu says. "Once China shifted its orientation, the group of developing countries followed."

The G77 (Group of 77) was founded in 1964 as a coalition for joint negotiation at the United Nations. It now includes 130 countries.

She says the move was mainly due to China's proposal for mitigation that is matched by support from developed countries in technology, capacity building and financing.

"It seeks a balance between rights and obligations," she says.

Yu says most G77 countries do not have a clear stand on the climate change convention. And most do not have a strong voice at the international negotiating table.

"China played the leading role in developing countries' Bali negotiations," Yu says.

Zou Ji, professor of Renmin University of China, one of the Chinese delegates, says that when developing countries accept obligations on mitigation, he hopes developed countries will follow with good performance in technology transfer, financing and capacity-building.

"Although the G77 and China made some progress in technology transfer negotiations, there have been no fundamental leaps so far."

He says rich countries have been slow and reluctant in transferring technology.

Yu says coming negotiations in 2008 and 2009 about reshaping the international plan to combat climate change will focus on how to make efforts "measurable, reportable and verifiable".

(China Daily 01/05/2008 page4)