China endorses climate change resolution

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- China's Legislature passed a resolution Thursday saying it will "actively" deal with climate change, although it did not yet set emissions reduction targets and reiterated its opposition to trade barriers.

The resolution says that "as a developing country," China will firmly "maintain the right to development" and opposes "any form of trade protectionism disguised as tackling climate change."

China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has refused to set limits on its emissions, contending that the responsibility for reducing emissions rests with the developed countries that have been longtime polluters. Its role is crucial to the success of the U.N.-backed negotiations on emissions targets in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

At the opening of the four-day legislative session on Monday, China's top climate negotiator Zie Zhenhua told lawmakers, "the focus of disagreement remains on each country's proportion of responsibility for emissions reductions, funding and technology transfer," China Daily reported.

Zhenhua said that China would "do its best with utmost sincerity" to push for a successful outcome in Copenhagen.

"With a spirit of being highly responsible for the survival and long-term development of mankind," the resolution says, China will continue to "constructively" participate in international conferences and negotiations on climate change "and advance comprehensive, effective and sustained implementation of the international convention and its protocol."

According to Thursday's resolution, China will follow "the basic framework" of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

However, the resolution says that developing nations should "take the lead in quantifying their reductions of emissions" and honor their commitments to "support developing countries with funds and technology transfers."

A report by state-run research groups released last week predicted that China's emissions would peak by 2030.

Thursday's resolution notes the importance of the role of science and technology in leading and supporting the fight against climate change.

"We should make carbon reduction a new source of economic growth, and change the economic development model to maximize efficiency, lower energy consumption and minimize carbon discharges," it says.

The resolution states that China must commit to energy saving and emissions reductions by promoting energy-efficient technology and products, capitalizing on renewable and clean energy, developing a recycling economy and further advancing forestry carbon sequestration.

It also calls for promoting cooperative international efforts between governments and legislative bodies to strengthen multilateral exchanges and negotiations while enhancing mutual understanding.