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Top Story - China Fires Back - Criticism of CO2 Emissions is “Unfair”

Echoing my assertion yesterday that the West has to share the blame with China, the Associated Press gave China’s reply to its new status as worst CO2 emitter.

Developed countries are hypocritical for criticizing China’s greenhouse gas emissions while buying products from its booming manufacturing industry, Beijing said Thursday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang called China the “world’s factory” and said criticism of its increased emissions was unfair.

“The developed countries move a lot of manufacturing industry into China. A lot of the things you wear, you use, you eat are produced in China,” he said at a regular news briefing. “On the one hand, you shall increase the production in China, on the other hand you criticize China on the emission reduction issue.”

China contiunes to argue its per capita emissions are much lower than the US.

Qin also stressed that while China’s total emissions are going up, they are still less than one quarter of those of the United States on a per capita basis.

“From an objective perspective you can see that the emission of China is large but China is a large population. The per capita emission is low,” Qin said.

I checked the Chinese english language news sites and this is what I found:

www.chinaview.com Xinhua online - China “responsible” in cutting greenhouse gas emissions

A Chinese government spokesman on Thursday said developing countries’ interests should be taken into consideration when the international community makes further plans to combat climate change, in which China is a responsible player.

    China’s position was unsurprising because of its rapid economic growth, massive population and the fact that it is manufacturing so much for richer countries, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

 A Dutch government research body said on Tuesday that China’s carbon dioxide emissions — the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming — surpassed those of the United States by eight percent in 2006.

    The per-capita emissions of greenhouse gas in Netherlands was 11.4 ton per year, while the figure of China is 3.66 tons, less than one third the level of developed nations, Qin said.

    “The key reason for current climate changes is high per-capita emissions in industrialized nations,” said the spokesman.

    As a developing country, China was not obliged to meet targets set by the Kyoto Protocol, under which most industrialized countries were required to reduce gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below the 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012, said the spokesman.

    Despite low per-capita emissions, the Chinese government had placed great emphasis on climate change and had employed effective measures to cut emissions and its negative impacts.

    The government has set a goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent by 2010, while pollutant discharges should drop by 10 percent.

    China had made great efforts to promote technology innovation, increase energy efficiency, develop low-carbon energy, improve the energy consumption structure and enhance environmental protection.

    Qin emphasized that the international community should be “cool-minded” and “rational” towards climate change.

    “China would like to make joint efforts with other countries in the world to deal with the problems,” Qin said.

www.chinadaily.com & www.china.org.cn -  Experts contest CO2 emmisions report

 Officials and experts have contested a recent report that said China had for the first time overtaken the United States as the world’s top producer of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The report, released on Tuesday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, said China overtook the US in emissions of CO2 by 8 percent in 2006. While China was 2 percent below the US in 2005, coal consumption and increased cement production had caused the numbers to rise rapidly.

The study said China, which relies on coal for two-thirds of its energy needs and makes 44 percent of the world’s cement, produced 6.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2006. In comparison, the US, which gets half of its electricity from coal, produced 5.8 billion metric tons of CO2, it said.

“It is meaningless to compare China’s national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with those of other countries, as China has the world’s largest population,” Cui Cheng, deputy director of the energy research institute at the National Development and Reform Commission.

Qin Gang, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “China’s gas emissions per capita are far below that of developed countries.

“Take China and the Netherlands. China’s annual per capita figure is 3.66 tons, while for the Dutch it is 11.4 tons, about three times higher. China’s emissions are just at survival levels.”

Qin said developed countries were also responsible for the high levels, as they had moved their factories to China.

“On one hand, they boost their production in China, on the other, they denounce the country’s high emission levels. It is unfair.”

China released 5.6 billion tons of CO2 equivalents in 2004, according to China’s National Climate Change Program.

Bottomline: The Chinese position has not changed even a tiny bit. As long as they keep relying upon the per capita argument we are in for a lot worse news to come. China has 1,321,851,888 people; according to the CIA factbook; while the US has 301,139,947. If China matches the US per capita CO2 output of 19 tons per person, that means almost 25 billion tons; and we are complaining about one fourth of that, 6.5 billion tons.

If China takes no action until mid century, and its emissions continue to grow at this rate, then our fight against global warming in the Developed Nations is; as I have said before; like getting into a boxing ring to fight the world champ, with one arm tied behind your back. You are doomed before you even start. The West must do all it can: Bribe, beg, cajole, and/or threaten to get China to take action before it is too late.

China’s reaction has made my prediction all the more certain, we have until 2025 before our coasts start suffering real and devastating consequences.

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Spotlight - The International Energy Agency (IEA) is finally getting on board the CSS effort according to this article by Reuters, World needs rules for burying greenhouse gases: IEA.  As I reported earlier in CSS Part One -Sleipner: The Missed Story, Sleipner the world’s first commercial CCS facility captures and stores about one million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. I am thrilled to have Claude Mandil, executive director of the IEA, which advises 26 industrialized nations, say:

“Carbon capture and storage potential is 6 billion tons a year by 2050. Pay attention to the scale. That means 6,000 Sleipner projects.” 

Echoing my assertion in that article and my article, The Future of Coal: Emphasizing CO2 Storage, that the technology is not the problem, the legal issues around potential leaks is the real issue; Mandil noted:

 …there were unsolved legal questions about who would be liable in the event of leaks from carbon stores, for instance in 20, 50 or 100 years’ time, and about issues such as property rights, waste and technology transfers.

The IEA issued a 140-page booklet about legal aspects of storing carbon dioxide outlining the problem but stopping short of giving clear recommendations, for instance about whether governments should assume liability for leaks in the long term.

The booklet also said that uncertainty about the rules should not block approval of new pilot projects in coming years.

He also backed my assertion that we need to move forward as quickly as possible: “We need about 10 full-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects by 2015. That’s challenging but possible.”

For More on Norway’s CSS (my preferred substitute for CCS) - Carbon Sequestration & Storage - plans, see:

• http://www.cslforum.org/documents/Delhi/pg_NorwayOutreachUpdate.pdf
• http://www.cslforum.org/documents/Norway_PublicOutreach.pdf
• http://www.ieagreen.org.uk/presentations/JG-NS.pdf

For more on international CSS efforts see:

• Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geological Storage (CCS): International Activities & Projects
• The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum
• The CO2 Capture Project
• CO2SINK

For more on the legal issues, see:

• International Carbon Capture and Storage Projects Overcoming Legal Barriers, by the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the DOE.
• The IEA Booklet, Legal Aspects of Storing CO2, online bookshop page 
• The IEA Press Release