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Outlook positive for a clean green China

By Du Wenjuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-06-12 22:43

China will continue its active efforts in facilitating clean development solutions towards fighting climate change in the post-Kyoto period, a senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said during a conference in Beijing Friday.

Gao Guangsheng, Director General of the Department of Climate Change at the NDRC, says practice in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects with cooperation from the EU had proved the mechanism "successful for China to fight against climate change by motivating active participation from the governments, enterprises and the general public," addressing the 2nd Business Facilitation Conference on CDM and Bioenergy.

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China has made full use of the CDM, the carbon trading system established under the Kyoto Protocol, in fulfilling its emissions reduction responsibilities in accordance with its sustainable development targets.

Gao rebutted assumptions that only China was the winner benefiting from projects under the mechanism, saying the expanding carbon credit trading market is a result of efforts from the Chinese government “in lowering the costs of emissions reduction through those projects and offering favorable policies.”

As of today, China has 574 CDM projects registered with the UN, accounting for about 34.5 percent of the program's projects the world body has approved globally, with many more awaiting formal approval by the UN.

To date, approved Chinese CDM projects have been issued with 131,909,488 carbon credits or certified emission reduction (CERs), about 44.5% of the total issued by the UN. Certified emission reduction is each offset of greenhouse emissions from developed nations in buying the carbon credits.

As the vast market of carbon trading grows even bigger, China endeavors to steer its way towards low carbon growth with strengthened resolutions and more initiatives.

As stated in a white paper on China's policies on climate change issued last October, the country aims to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by 2010 from 2006 levels which will help cut greenhouse gas emissions to a large extent.

Aimed at providing more cooperation opportunities for both Chinese and foreign businesses, the one-day conference had up to 180 enterprises home and abroad present with expertise and cooperation intent in bioenergy utilization cooperation.