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2010-06-30

Climte change mission needs a fair international framework

Second comments on Xiujun Xu “China and climate change in the post-Copenhagen era”, 30/06/2010, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2010/06/25/china-and-climate-change-in-the-post-copenhagen-era/comment-page-1/#comment-126430
This is to answer some comments on the post and my comments.

First to address Davis Gao's points, I am afraid you probably missed and misunderstood my point. I did not say or argue that I hope China does more than it has said it would do and I don't know how you got that impression. Further my point is about a simple and fair principle and framework that can be used to get an international agreement on global actions on climate change and that does not disadvantage any countries including China which may act alone in advance irrespective other countries act or not. My framework is totally consistent with the principle of “common differentiated responsibilities” that, I understood, is China’s public stance.

Second, while I have sympathy for the thrust of admin city’s main argument, I think China can and should take actions together with all other countries based on a practical, pragmatic and effective application of the principle of “common differentiated responsibilities”, rather than arguing for that principle without an effective and fair framework to make that principle stronger to argue and to implement. Again, I think my framework should provide the necessary ingredients for any and every reasonable country, rich or poor to accept.

Third, Mariyas’ speculation appears to ignore and to be contradictory to the fact that China has announced an ambitious action plan of reducing its energy intensity by 40-45% by 2020 from the 2005 level unilaterally even though its stage of economic development (if based on past experiences) requires much higher energy intensity now and its per capita emissions are much lower than most industrialised countries, especially the US. As in my first comments, I asked the question what had occurred at Copenhagen. Your further speculation does not seem to be helpful and is more confusing and misleading. Frankly speaking, that is not the right way to advance the climate change cause.

However, I do agree with countries taking actions in reducing emissions should not be punished. But we should also realise and acknowledge that without actions now it’s the industrialised countries that are emitting much more per capita CO2 into the atmosphere every day and every moment. That itself is not fair, is it?

We need and should be fair to everyone. To achieve that, we must adopt a fair framework to avoid unnecessary and distorted arguments.

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