Climate change 'one of the greatest challenges' on earth

China played an "important and constructive" role in sealing the last-minute Copenhagen Accord, Premier Wen Jiabao said after returning from the Danish capital, while urging the international community to treasure the summit's hard-won outcome.

The two-week conference ended on Dec 19. It "takes note of" the Copenhagen Accord, a legally non-binding agreement which highlighted the gravity of the climate change as "one of the greatest challenges" on earth.

The Copenhagen Accord set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times - seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts, mudslides, sandstorms and rising seas. But it failed to say how this would be achieved.

It held out the prospect of $100 billion in annual aid from 2020 for developing nations but did not specify precisely where this money would come from. And it pushed decisions on core issues such as emissions cuts into the future.

"This basically is a letter of intent... the ingredients of an architecture that can respond to the long-term challenge of climate change, but not in precise legal terms. That means we have a lot of work to do on the long road to Mexico," said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.

Observers tracking the progress of the climate change talks agreed with Wen's assessment, saying China was making persistent efforts to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.

Amid Western media reports that the country had wrecked a binding deal at Copenhagen, Premier Wen told Xinhua News Agency in an interview after his return from the conference that China had worked closely with other countries during the 13-day climate change negotiations.

"The communication process was open, transparent and highly efficient, which played a very important role in securing the outcome," Wen said. "China always does that with the utmost sincerity and effort."

Ever since Nov 26, when China pledged to cut carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels before 2020, Wen has been involved in intensive diplomatic efforts, including wide-ranging telephone talks with world leaders, to move forward the Copenhagen agenda.

He also met key heads of state from rich countries, the developing bloc, island nations, and from Africa after arriving in Copenhagen.

Without such efforts, the observers pointed out, even the agreed accord would not have been possible given the vastly different positions of the developed and developing nations.

The world could hardly afford a "no-deal" scenario, with 119 global leaders attending the talks during the final stages, they said.

"In this respect, China has played a very constructive role in helping to secure a deal, whether it was binding or not," Dennis Pamlin, a Sweden-based climate change advisor and visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Alex Wang, director of the China Environmental Law Project of the US-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said China had made two important contributions to the Copenhagen Accord.

The first related to its voluntary announcement of the emission reduction target just before the Copenhagen summit. The second was in agreeing to move towards greater transparency and "international consultations and analysis".

"The latter set the stage for a clearer global understanding of how countries were reducing greenhouse gas emissions, although the details need to be worked out in a way that promotes transparency," said Wang.

Wen, who was the first speaker at the leaders' summit on Dec 18 in Copenhagen, said China's 40 to 45 percent carbon intensity reduction commitment was unconditional and voluntary, and that the country would try its utmost to meet, or even exceed, the target.

The statement was praised by Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International. "We are encouraged by China's determination to combat climate change, especially it's unconditional effort to slash carbon emissions in China, despite huge poverty challenges. China's resolve to cut their own emissions regardless of the outcome of the summit is exemplary."

(China Daily 12/28/2009 page5)