Climate Change - Finger Pointing Not Constructive

10 Oct 2010

UN Climate change conference 2010 - Tianjin, China

So I'm at home and reading the papers on a Sun afternoon. At the conference, China hit back yesterday at US claims that it was shirking in the fight against climate change, likening criticisms from the Obama administration's top climate envoy to a pig preening itself in a mirror.

Mr Todd Stern (US chief climate negotiator), in remarks at a US university, said Beijing could not insist that rich nations take on fixed targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions while China and other big emerging nations adopt only voluntary domestic goals.

Mr Su Wei (senior Chinese climate change negotiator) countered that Mr Stern's claims were a diversion from the US failure to make big cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases causing global warming.

China is the world's top greenhouse gas polluter after the U.S.

"In fact, it amounts to doing nothing themselves and then shirking responsibility. They want to place the blame on China and other developing countries", Mr Su told reporters in Tianjin. He likened the US criticism to Zhubajie, a pig featured in the Chinese classic Journey To The West, which in a traditional saying preens itself in a mirror.

"It has no measures or actions to show for itself, and instead, it criticises China, which is actively taking measures and actions," Mr Su said of the US.


Erm, I don't get it. Both are the top greenhouse gas polluter in the world. Who cares what categorization of the type of country they are. Can't someone just recategorize China as not emerging and already merged? Then China would have to have fixed targets to cut greenhouse emission, alongside the U.S.

BOTH, U.S. and China, should have COMMON fixed targets to cut emissions. And quit squabbling!