China's National Climate Change Program was officially promulgated on June 4, on the eve of the 36th World Environment Day. Ma Kai, Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a press conference at the Information Office of the State Council, that climate change, a common challenge facing humanity, entails joint action from the international community.

The Chinese Government has always attached great importance to this issue, and is willing to work with other countries to mitigate global warming, he said.

Ma stressed that climate change was a major global issue of common concern to the international community. Although the latter holds various perspectives on the extent and causes of global warming, as well as the main responsibility for and solutions to global warming, mainstream views are converging, he stated. At least four points of consensus have been reached, he added: Global warming is an indisputable fact; global warming has brought about serious consequences to our natural ecological system and the environment, threatening human survival and development; apart from natural factors, climate change is closely related to human activity, especially the discharge of carbon dioxide caused by the consumption of fossil fuels such as coal and oil; coping with climate change is a global challenge that requires the joint efforts of the international community.

China Poses No Threat to the Global Environment

Substantiating his speech with facts and figures, Ma denounced accusations that China poses a threat to global environment. He cited three groups of data.

First, China's carbon dioxide emissions, viewed from a historical perspective, are relatively low. Cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion accounted for only 9.33 percent of the world total from 1950 to 2002. Before 1950, China's share was even smaller.

Second, China's per-capita emissions are also low. Statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that per-capita carbon dioxide emissions in China were 3.65 tons in 2004, equivalent to only 87 percent of the world average and 33 percent of the level in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Furthermore, China  ranked 92nd in the world based on its cumulative carbon dioxide emissions per capita from 1950 to 2002.

Third, according to IEA statistics, a one-percent rise in gross domestic product (GDP) led to an average 0.6 percentage point increase in carbon dioxide emissions worldwide from 1990 to 2004, but China only increased 0.38 percentage point.

"I don't see how China can be labeled a threat," said Ma. "Compared to the industrialized countries, until recently China had low greenhouse gas emissions and these are still relatively low in per-capita terms. Rises in GDP in China produce smaller hikes in carbon dioxide discharges than in other countries. This kind of talk is grossly exaggerated and unfair. As a responsible major country, China has made its due contributions to the protection of the global climate system and is an important positive factor in this regard."
 A More Objective Approach to Evaluating Greenhouse Emissions

A reporter pointed out that given the fact that China is already the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, it could overtake the United States one day. In response, Ma advocated the use of a more objective methodology to evaluate carbon dioxide emissions.

People should look at per-capita emissions while emphasizing total emissions, Ma said. The size of a country's population has a crucial bearing on its total emissions, and to a large extent the total emissions of a large country and those of a small country are not comparable, he added. Even if China overtook the United States a certain year in terms of total emissions, its per-capita emissions would still be a quarter of those of the United States, since its population was four times greater, Ma said.

While focusing on the current emissions, people should look at past cumulative emissions, Ma said. According to the statistics of a U.S. national laboratory that had been doing research on climate change for years, the carbon dioxide emissions of the United States accounted for 28.3 percent of the world total from 1903 to 2003, whereas China's was only 7.6 percent in the same period.

Ma further stressed that analysts should bear in mind the different developmental stages of the countries while considering the quantity of emissions. "International experience has shown that a country tends to discharge more greenhouse gases as it gets industrialized," he said. "However, after it completes industrialization, its emissions gradually decline. It is natural that China, a country that is currently undergoing industrialization, has relatively high energy consumption and large carbon dioxide emissions. The rise in the greenhouse gas emissions of a country at a certain period of its history is justifiable. This is true for China as well as other developing countries."

Also, he said, people should take into consideration the emissions that a country has shifted to other nations. "Developed countries are at the high end of the industrial chain, boasting a highly developed service industry and advanced science and technology," said Ma. "It is no wonder that their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are relatively low." In contrast, developing countries at the low end of the industrial chain produce and export large quantities of high energy consuming and emission-causing products, he noted. China's net export of steel and coke reached 25 million tons and 14 million tons respectively last year. It also exported a large number of mechanical products. The production of all these goods involved high energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and had increased China's total carbon dioxide emissions, thereby reducing the emissions of the importer countries, he said.

Common but Differentiated Responsibilities for Climate Change

Ma emphasized that climate change is an environmental issue that comes down to development, a crucial fact that he believes should be acknowledged even as countries set out to deal with climate change.  Economic development and poverty alleviation should be the pressing tasks of developing countries today, he said. Ma called on the international community to give full consideration to the right of these countries to develop while coping with climate change. He observed that as they pursue industrialization and modernization, today's developed countries discharge huge amounts of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, in an unbridled manner. It is therefore unfair to ignore historical facts and the countries' different stages of development, and demand unreasonably that developing countries undertake the same emission reduction obligations as developed countries, Ma said. This would qualify as an attempt to hinder their development and progress in industrialization and modernization, he said. Ma also warned that such an attempt would have far graver consequences than climate change. The principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was objective and fair, Ma pointed out.

China will properly handle the relationship between development and environmental protection as it seeks modernization, he added. "China will not replicate the traditional model of industrialization characterized by high energy consumption and excessive greenhouse gas emissions," he said. "Instead, it will pursue a new path of industrialization featuring low consumption of resources, low emissions, high efficiency and high output to achieve win-win results in economic development and environmental protection. The endeavor in itself is a positive contribution to the sustainable development of the world and the global campaign to address climate change."