http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070407TDY01004.htm
China to share burden of CO2 emission cuts/ Beijing to join post-Kyoto emission talks
The Yomiuri Shimbun
China will express its determination to participate proactively in talks on an international framework to fight global warming from 2013 in a Japan-China joint statement to be issued during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit Tokyo next week, it was learned Friday.
China is the world’s major producer of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but is not obliged to reduce its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Beijing had been negative about joining the post-Kyoto Protocol framework talks, as it would eventually be obliged to reduce its output of greenhouse gases.
But with its change in policy, China will now shoulder its share of responsibility in fighting global warming, boosting the effectiveness of the post-Kyoto Protocol framework.
According to the draft for the joint statement, Japan and China will express their political determination to work to solve global warming through international cooperation.
The draft statement also states the two countries will “proactively participate in building an effective framework from 2013 onward.”
The two countries also will strengthen bilateral cooperation by adopting a so-called clean development mechanism, in which developed countries implement greenhouse gas-reduction projects in developing countries, and by transferring energy-saving technologies to China in individual industry sectors, such as steel and cement.
Specifically, Japan is expected to launch water purification projects at Bohai Bay, coastal areas of the Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River. Bohai Bay, which is close to both Beijing and Tianjin, has a serious water pollution problem due to sewage and other waste water. Using Japan’s technologies, sludge in the bay will be dredged up and sewage processing will be introduced.
In addition, the two nations are expected to reach a 10-point agreement over Japan’s provision of assistance to China in its environment preservation and energy-saving efforts.
Under the agreement, Japan would help China with reforestation projects that aim to prevent yellow sand originating in Chinese deserts from being spread by prevailing winds across wide areas of China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The two nations also would cooperate with research into the effects of yellow sand in the region.
In light of Chinese garbage reaching coastal areas of the Sea of Japan, another major topic to be tackled under the agreement is China’s treatment of waste.
According to government sources, China has already approved the outlines of the agreement.
The two sides are expected to iron out the details during a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Wen, who arrives in Japan on Wednesday.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 percent during 2008-12 from the 1990 level.
China, India, the United States, and other major greenhouse gas emitters are not subject to such restrictions, which compromises the effectiveness of the protocol.
China is projected to become the world’s largest emitter of global warming gases in 2010–surpassing the United States.
At a meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in November, China rejected proposals to revise the protocol, which would have obliged it to reduce its output of greenhouse gases.
China’s policy switchover is being seen by some in the government as a sign that Beijing is concerned about serious environmental destruction.
“I think the major reasons [for China's change of position] are the grave deterioration of its environment that accompanied its economic growth, and its pressing need to adopt energy-saving measures in relation to a steep rise in crude oil prices,” a government official said.
(Apr. 7, 2007)