Global pact to push China to low-carbon economy: Blair

Yahoo News 20 Aug 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – China's efforts to build a low-carbon economy would accelerate if world powers agree to a "practical" global climate change pact later this year, former British prime minister Tony Blair said Thursday.

Blair was speaking ahead of key UN talks in Denmark in December aimed at securing a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

"What we need is getting a solution in Copenhagen that is practical, realistic and objective," Blair told journalists in Beijing.

"If we get an agreement that actually launches the world on a new path, then I think we will find that progress (in China and elsewhere) in developing the science and technology accelerates."

Blair -- who is working with the non-profit Climate Group to try to push for an agreement in Copenhagen -- helped unveil the group's new report on Thursday entitled "China's Clean Revolution II".

He said China, which is competing with the United States for the title of world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, has made great strides in its efforts to develop clean fuel technology in recent years.

The country has become a world leader in electric vehicle production, with homegrown manufacturers aiming to produce 500,000 such cars by 2011, he said. China is Asia's largest wind power generator, and ranked fourth in the world.

The world's most populous nation is on track to meet goals to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent from 2006-2010 and is preparing new targets for 2011-2015, the former British leader said.

Blair welcomed a recent report by a government panel of experts that said China's carbon emissions could slow by 2020 and begin to fall in or about 2030, all while the country maintains economic growth, if reduction targets are set.

"That is what people want to see, the (emissions) peaking as soon as possible," Blair said.

"I expect China will come out with its position, America will come out with its position and so on ... the agenda for (Copenhagen), I think, is on a completely different level of credibility than previous negotiations."

As a developing nation with low per-capita emissions, China is not required to set emissions cuts under the UN Framework on Climate Change, and it has so far appeared reluctant to accept any formal caps for the future.

China seen looking to bigger climate change steps
Reuters 20 Aug 09;

BEIJING (Reuters) - China appears committed to stronger steps to contain swelling greenhouse gas emissions, the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said after meetings in Beijing, urging practical hopes of climate treaty negotiations.

Blair said on Thursday that his talks with Premier Wen Jiabao indicated that climate change had moved closer to the heart of Chinese policy-setting.

China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from human activity, is starting to explore goals for its next five-year development plan starting from 2011. Blair said China was likely to adopt stronger measures to rein in emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuel.

"I think the single most important thing is to understand that in its development plans -- in other words, how the Chinese economy grows over the coming years -- low-carbon growth is at the heart of those plans," Blair told a news conference.

The former British leader's comments add to recent signs that Beijing wants to seize some initiative in negotiations for a new global climate change treaty.

With its fast-rising greenhouse gas emissions, China's stance will be crucial in efforts to create a successor to the current Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.

Western nations have pressed Beijing to set specific goals on slowing emissions growth in coming years, leading to early cuts in absolute volumes as part of a new pact that governments hope to seal in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.

But Beijing says rich countries must lead the way with big emissions cuts, since they are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases from human activity that have accumulated in the atmosphere, retaining rising amounts of solar radiation.

China has already set a domestic goal of cutting energy intensity by 20 percent over the five years to 2010.

Some Chinese experts have said the nation should also set goals for improving carbon intensity, cutting the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to create each unit of economic value.

A recent study by some of the nation's top climate change policy advisers also said China should set targets to limit greenhouse gas emissions so they peak around 2030, a departure from Beijing's reluctance to discuss specific peaks and goals.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills)