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2008-10-28 | All chapters

China toughens stance in emissions debate
Geoff Dyer, Fiona Harvey, Financial Times, 28th October 2008

China raised the price of its co-operation in the world's climate change talks on Tuesday by calling for developed countries to spend 1 per cent of their domestic product helping poorer nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

The funding – amounting to more than $300bn based on Group of Seven countries – would be spent largely on the transfer of "green" technologies, such as renewable energy, to poorer countries.

Gao Guangsheng, head of the climate change office at the National Reform and Development Commission, the Chinese government’s main planning body, said that even such large funds "might not be enough".

China's toughened stance comes weeks ahead of United Nations talks in Poland aimed at forging a successor to the Kyoto protocol, whose main provisions expire in 2012.

The two-week-long talks, in early December in Poznan, Poland, are not expected to produce much progress in the two-year negotiations, which began last year in Bali and will culminate late next year in a conference in Copenhagen. However, the timing of China’s intervention is seen as significant because the Poznan talks will be the first to take place after the US presidential election.

The new president will be under pressure from industry not to jeopardise US finances in the quest to tackle global warming. Under China’s proposals, the US would have to give more than $130bn and the European Union more than $160bn to technology transfer.

Officials involved in the talks said that China's demand was unlikely to be agreed by developed countries, but reflected a feeling among poor nations that they were not receiving sufficient funds in order to help them deal with climate change.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/156baa64-a51e-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html

Relevant reports:
China Daily: West told to keep its promises on tech transfer