Not Very Ambitious Commitments

China and the United States are vying for the leading role in the Climate Change summit that will take place in less than two weeks in Copenhagen by announcing their respective reductions of contaminating emissions that would signify a great challenge for them.

China, considered the world’s third largest economic power and the greatest emitter of polluting gases, announced for the first time specific objectives to reduce the quantity that would be set off into the atmosphere. Furthermore, Premier Wen Jiabao will participate in the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change from December 7-18 in the Danish capital, during which time the Parties will try to agree on new compromises for reducing greenhouse gases to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Beijing announced on Thursday its goal of reducing emissions the day after Washington announced its own goal, and, for the first time, announced that Barack Obama will stop in Copenhagen on the way to Oslo, where he will receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

“In a moment like this, we all want to have moral authority, and no one wants to be responsible for the failure of the Copenhagen negotiations,” stated Wu Changhua, director for China of the NGO Climate Group, which is headquartered in Great Britain. But the Chinese and American proposals differ substantially.

The United States, the greater emitter of greenhouse gases per capita, compromised in reducing the volume that it emits to the atmosphere by 17 percent by 2020, and by 83 percent in 2050, compared to figures in 2005.

It is the first firm compromise that a United States government has made on the issue, but remains below the recommendation of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which states that industrialized countries should reduce contaminating emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, with respect to the volumes of 1990.

China’s commitment is also considered insufficient. Beijing says China will reduce its emissions in accordance with its economic growth, instead of reducing its volumes within a specified period. The State Council, China’s Cabinet, proposes to reduce its carbon intensity, that is to say, the volume of gases emitted for each percent point of the gross domestic product (GDP) between 40 percent and 45 percent by 2020.

Given the size of the Chinese economy and its rapid growth, this means that they may increase emissions, but not at the previous speed.

“We will have to pay a high price to achieve our objective,” declared Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the governmental National Commission on Development and Reform, who is in charge of the planning programs in that country. Beijing imposed one condition: their commitment is an internal one that will be incorporated into development plans, medium and long term, and will be monitored locally.

“It is a voluntary goal, but of an obligatory nature with regard to the international community,” he added. “We made a commitment and the Chinese keep their word.”

The Chinese announcement came on Thursday, but was originally planned for Friday; it was pushed up by one day in order to directly follow the announcement of the United States.