RISING CHINA AT COPENHAGEN
Simi Thambi
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, January 5, 2010
Twenty years ago, China was East Asia's largest oil exporter. Today, it is the world's second-largest importer. Now that China is the workshop of the world, its hunger for electricity and industrial resources has soared. Beijing's access to foreign resources is necessary both for continued economic growth and for the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Thus, an unprecedented need for resources is now driving China's foreign policy. After three decades of near two-digit economic growth till 2009, China still has immense developmental needs, given that almost half of China’s estimated 1.3 billion citizens still live on less than $2 (PPP) a day. There is no doubting China’s justifiable right to development. But development is dependent on growth and growth is fuelled by energy which leads to green house gas emissions and sustainability problems. China faces a trade off between energy efficiency and growth.
Until recently China had pursued an inflexible stance with respect to climate change negotiations. Chinese negotiators argued along with the G-77 countries that it is unfair to compare among different countries ignoring their size in terms of population, China alone makes up one-fifth of the world's population and the per capita emission in China was low compared to the emission in the industrialized world. The PRC’s negotiators argued that China’s share of the global CO2 emissions that have accumulated in the atmosphere over the last 100 years is a mere 8 percent, whereas the industrial nations, whose greenhouse gas emissions have been building up for more than a century, bear the historical responsibility for climate change, a fact that should be borne in mind at climate negotiations. They also argued that approximately a quarter of the emission currently caused by China originate from the production of goods destined for export (Carbon leakage or Surrogate Emissions).
Simi Thambi
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, January 5, 2010
Twenty years ago, China was East Asia's largest oil exporter. Today, it is the world's second-largest importer. Now that China is the workshop of the world, its hunger for electricity and industrial resources has soared. Beijing's access to foreign resources is necessary both for continued economic growth and for the survival of the Chinese Communist Party. Thus, an unprecedented need for resources is now driving China's foreign policy. After three decades of near two-digit economic growth till 2009, China still has immense developmental needs, given that almost half of China’s estimated 1.3 billion citizens still live on less than $2 (PPP) a day. There is no doubting China’s justifiable right to development. But development is dependent on growth and growth is fuelled by energy which leads to green house gas emissions and sustainability problems. China faces a trade off between energy efficiency and growth.
Until recently China had pursued an inflexible stance with respect to climate change negotiations. Chinese negotiators argued along with the G-77 countries that it is unfair to compare among different countries ignoring their size in terms of population, China alone makes up one-fifth of the world's population and the per capita emission in China was low compared to the emission in the industrialized world. The PRC’s negotiators argued that China’s share of the global CO2 emissions that have accumulated in the atmosphere over the last 100 years is a mere 8 percent, whereas the industrial nations, whose greenhouse gas emissions have been building up for more than a century, bear the historical responsibility for climate change, a fact that should be borne in mind at climate negotiations. They also argued that approximately a quarter of the emission currently caused by China originate from the production of goods destined for export (Carbon leakage or Surrogate Emissions).
(...) [artículo aquí]
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