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Obama Presses China On Global Warming
HughPickens.com writes: The NY Times reports that President Obama spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Summit and challenged China to make the same effort to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and join a worldwide campaign to curb global warming. Obama's words were directly focused on putting the onus on China, an essential partner of the U.S. if a global climate treaty is to be negotiated by 2015. The U.S. and China bear a "special responsibility to lead," said Obama. "That's what big nations have to do." The U.S., Obama said, would meet a pledge to reduce its carbon emissions by 17 percent, from 2005 levels, by 2020 — a goal that is in large part expected to be met through proposed EPA regulation.
There were indications that China might be ready with its own plan, although many experts say they will be skeptical until Chinese officials reveal the details. A senior Chinese official said his country would try to reach a peak level of carbon emissions "as early as possible." This suggests the Chinese government, struggling with air pollution so extreme that it has threatened economic growth, regularly kept millions of children indoors and ignited street protests, was determined to show faster progress in curbing emissions. In recent years, the Chinese government has sent other signals about addressing carbon pollution, some of them encouraging to environmental experts. "Five years ago, it was almost unimaginable to discuss China putting a cap on carbon, but now that is happening," said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund's office in Beijing. "Chinese leaders have seen that it is imperative to move toward a low-carbon economy."
There were indications that China might be ready with its own plan, although many experts say they will be skeptical until Chinese officials reveal the details. A senior Chinese official said his country would try to reach a peak level of carbon emissions "as early as possible." This suggests the Chinese government, struggling with air pollution so extreme that it has threatened economic growth, regularly kept millions of children indoors and ignited street protests, was determined to show faster progress in curbing emissions. In recent years, the Chinese government has sent other signals about addressing carbon pollution, some of them encouraging to environmental experts. "Five years ago, it was almost unimaginable to discuss China putting a cap on carbon, but now that is happening," said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund's office in Beijing. "Chinese leaders have seen that it is imperative to move toward a low-carbon economy."
China wouldn't need to burn so much coal if we in the West stopped using them for their child labor just so we can have iStuff and other bling a little bit cheaper.
I came here to post just this. America is one of the worst examples of climate policy. I believe they took the position of saying if developing countries don't need to sign up then why should we. Capitalism at it's finest, the "first mover" advantage.
Not as disappointing as Canada though. At least everyone expects the USA to be a global ass, it's a shame Canada simply threw the environment into the "too hard" basket.
There's a limit to the fossil fuels we can burn, and they're only going to get more expensive. There is far more energy available from alternative sources, and switching to them could be economically beneficial soon. If you want energy starvation and poverty, just keep burning fossil fuels.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
China is now producing one wind turbine every hour: http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/in... (while we squabble about whether radiative physics is a real thing or just Greenpeace propaganda)
China is kicking the worlds ass when it comes to clean air generation progress.
China is moving its dirty coal burning plants away from the cities, not getting rid of them
Coal gas boom in China holds climate change risks
This is the first of more than 60 coal-to-gas plants China wants to build, mostly in remote parts of the country where ethnic minorities have farmed and herded for centuries. Fired up in December, the multibillion-dollar plant bombards millions of tons of coal with water and heat to produce methane, which is piped to Beijing to generate electricity.
It's part of a controversial energy revolution China hopes will help it churn out desperately needed natural gas and electricity while cleaning up the toxic skies above the country's eastern cities. However, the plants will also release vast amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, even as the world struggles to curb greenhouse gas emissions and stave off global warming.
If all of the plants start up, the carbon dioxide they'd release would equal three-quarters of all energy-related carbon emissions in the U.S., according to U.S. government data and energy experts from Duke and Stanford universities. That is far more than now produced in China by burning coal, the country's main source of power.
And the nuclear plants they have under construction will produce more power than the USA's (#1) and France's (#2) nuclear power combined.
Yet they will still need all that dirty coal power to meet their energy demands.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!