Voice from Sydney

ABC: Climate change is a fact, says China 11/03

A deputy director of China's most powerful economic ministry has come out swinging against climate change denial.

Senior Chinese government figures have described the view that climate change is not man-made as an "extreme" stance which is out of step with mainstream thought.

The ABC asked the panel what they thought of the view that climate change had nothing to do with human activity and was in fact a natural phenomenon.

Xie Zhenhua, a deputy director at China's powerful economic ministry, the National Development and Reform Commission, answered that he believed that man-made climate change denial is, at best, a very marginal view.

"Climate change is a fact based on long-time observations by countries around the world," he said.

He said the responsibility for this climate change rested squarely with the Western world, so the onus was on it to clean up the mess caused in the rush to industrialisation.

Netizen: Pete 11/03

China has one of the largest wind power industries in the world that by the end of this year will be installing in wind power the same output that would supply all of Australia's yearly energy supply, and it is forecasted to keep increasing. It is also forecasted to surpass Germany as the largest installer of solar power. So all in all it is doing an enormous amount, in fact far more than we are. If you actually do any research into what countries are doing, the US is also doing far more than we are; unfortunately we really are at the bottom of the pack in terms of doing anything about our green house emissions.

ABC: China economy truly extraordinary, says Wen 05/03

Mr Wen delivered a pretty frank assessment of how bad things might have been. Yet Mr Wen described the last year in China as "truly extraordinary and inspiring". He said China's economy was the first to recover from the crisis thanks to a calm response.

Mr Wen also said there needed to be something of a cultural shift in terms of people's attitude to consumption if China is to reduce emissions and protect the environment.