Rich nations urged to lend green hand

By Cai Hong in Washington and Cui Xiaohuo in Beijing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-07 09:31

The Chinese ambassador to the United States has urged developed countries to help developing nations address problems relating to climate change, saying it is a "common but differentiated responsibility" for them all.

"China is ready to maintain close cooperation with the US," Zhou Wenzhong told a forum at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank, on Thursday, adding the country will continue to be "an active and responsible participant and contributor" to international cooperation in regard to clean energy and climate change.

Also on Thursday, a group of US scholars led by Steven Chu, US President Barack Obama's choice of secretary of energy and a Nobel laureate, published a key report proposing how the US and China can work on climate change issues in the long run.

The report proposes that China and the US convene a presidential summit to create a broad plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

It also suggests the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters should lay out areas for cooperation including low-emissions coal technologies, energy efficiency and conservation, and renewable energy.

On Wednesday, John Bruton, the European Union's envoy to Washington, told skeptical US lawmakers that China should not shirk from making firm commitments at global climate change talks set for December.

Republican representative James Sensenbrenner also insisted that any treaty coming out of the December talks in Copenhagen would fail unless curbs on large developing countries such as China, Brazil and India were imposed.

The US State Department said on Thursday that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who will arrive in China for a three-day trip as her final stop in Asia later this month, will also address the situation, with the economic crisis and nuclear issues also on the top of the agenda.

"With a new presidential administration in the US and increasing awareness of the dangers of global warming among Chinese leaders, our two countries are presented with an unparalleled opportunity to form a new strategic partnership aimed at averting catastrophic climate change," said Orville Schell, Arthur Ross director of the Center on US-China Relations.

The US has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

The Chinese government signed the protocol in 1998, but insists the gas emission levels of any given country is a multiplication of its per capita emissions.