Experts contest CO2 emmisions report
From China DailyChina: Criticism of CO2 Emissions Unfair
Developed countries are hypocritical for criticizing China's greenhouse gas emissions while buying products from its booming manufacturing industry, Beijing said Thursday.
From the Washington Post
China Blames West for Increasing Greenhouse Emissions
Qin Gang, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, says Western criticism of China's increasing greenhouse gas emissions is hypocritical, since Western demand for Chinese products is contributing to the problem.
From Voice of America
China "responsible" in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, spokesman
From People's Daily
The South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com) says a report that said China had overtaken the United States as the world's biggest polluter fails to address the real challenges of climate change.
"Beijing's dismissal of a report from the Netherlands that the mainland has overtaken the US as the world's top producer of carbon dioxide - a year ahead of the earliest predictions - is less pertinent than a mainland official's comment that there is no need for a big fuss anyway, because the event is inevitable. He has a point. China's displacement of the US at the head of the table of big polluters will not change anything. The mainland is still well down the table and a long way behind the US when its greenhouse gas emissions are calculated per head of population. However, given the country's goal of sustaining strong economic growth, that will not remain so for long. A new report by the US National Bureau of Economic Research gives a different perspective. It forecasts that by 2040, the mainland's economy will be twice as big as that of the US, the core European Union countries and Japan put together. It will also be rich, say the researchers, with a per capita income of US$85,000 in year - in 2000 dollar terms. To realise that forecast, China would have to maintain an 8.3 per cent annual growth rate from 2000 to 2040...
"The mainland's ranking as the biggest modern polluter, though it is not to blame for accumulated pollution which started global warming, should serve as a reminder to developed nations that they have the most to lose. They will have to engage with the mainland sooner or later on global efforts to limit climate change. Commitments to cut emissions remain the most effective means at hand for developed nations to combat global warming, but consensus is badly needed on a more flexible approach to meeting emerging nations' concerns and gaining their co-operation."
It took a while but it looks like the party line matches Greenpeace U.K., the British Foreign Office and Friends of the Earth
