China to become biggest polluter

2000-10-30 10:52

Beijing - China, on track to become the world's number one emitter of carbon dioxide, will not sacrifice its economic development to the battle against global warming, officials said.

Beijing will approach an international global warming conference in The Hague in November ready to torpedo any proposal which seeks to impose restrictions on developing countries' pollution emissions, as has been suggested by German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin.

"The issue of cutting developing countries' carbon gas emissions should not be revived again," said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.

Limits on carbon gas emissions were imposed on developed countries by the Kyoto Protocol adopted three years ago in Japan, despite calls for developing countries to help shoulder the burden.

The 38 industrialised countries who signed up to the protocol should apply their pledges "as fast as possible" including funding and technology transfers for developing countries in their struggle against pollution, the spokesman said.

According to a government expert, the rise in temperature on the Tibetan plateau has exceeded the world average (up 0.8 degrees since 1950), threatening to dry up rivers which water a large part of Asia, such as the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Yellow River.

China is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide - one of the principal factors contributing to global warming - accounting for 14 percent of the planet's total.

And by 2020 it is expected to surpass the United States, emitting 18 percent of the world's total.

China points to its huge population saying it emits four times less carbon dioxide per person than developed countries.

"But this should not exclude China from the responsibility of joining the global community to protect our common climate," said Xavier Chen, of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

According to the IEA, China's energy consumption will more than double in the next 20 years particularly since 77 percent of its energy consumption is provided by coal.

Even if that figure fell to 67 percent of total energy consumption in 2020, China would still burn twice as much coal as it does today, Chen said.

The increasing number of vehicles in China is also a significant factor in the worsening pollution situation, according to World Watch, an American environmental research centre.

If China had as many cars per person as the United States it would burn 80 million barrels of oil every day, more than global production (64 million), it said.

The five-year social and economic development plan, just adopted by the Communist party, places a priority on the environment, but at the same time, promises to "boost capacity to buy personal cars," state media have reported.

And China's pollution levels also carry a financial and health toll. Experts estimate that after 20 years of unchecked growth, authorities are counting the cost of pollution on health and agriculture, estimated to be around 8 percent of GDP.

The World Bank estimated in 1997 that nearly 300 000 Chinese die each year from pollution-related ailments.

"China has one of the most comprehensive environment policies in the world but it cannot enforce it on a local level," said Plato Yip, of the Hong Kong arm of environmental agency Friends of the Earth.

"The central government has trouble controlling highly polluting small rural industries which move from village to village from one day to the next."

China, already feeling the pinch from closing indebted state enterprises, has balked at closing down these small industries, said Yip. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA