China's legislature backs climate change resolution

In a what promises to be a landmark move in the global fight to tackle global warming, China's legislators yesterday approved a formal resolution on climate change designed to accelerate the nation's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The resolution states that China will draft laws and regulations to provide the legal foundations for its fast-emerging climate change strategy.

"We must strengthen energy-saving and emissions reduction, striving to control emissions of greenhouse gases," said the resolution, urging greater support for wind, solar and other forms of clean energy.

Pu Haiqing, a deputy director of the parliament's environment and resource protection committee, told state-run newspaper China Daily that the resolution had been proposed by parliament deputies earlier this year.

"Fighting climate change has become an urgent task, with the country facing an increased frequency of extreme weather and climate disasters," he added.

Wu Changhua, Greater China director of the London-based coalition The Climate Group, told China Daily that the resolution confirmed an important shift in the Chinese government's approach to climate change.

"Taking mitigation and adaptation actions are now viewed as a necessity for China's own development, not out of consideration for international climate negotiations," she said.

While it has long resisted international pressure to set a emissions reduction target, China – the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases – has in recent weeks signaled that it will step up efforts to cut its CO2 output.

A new study by climate change experts from national think-tanks recommended that China's greenhouse gas output should peak "as soon as possible", followed by the establishment of absolute targets "to cap the total volume of carbon dioxide emissions".

The resolution by parliament demonstrates that China is "strengthening and speeding up" its domestic efforts in combating climate change, He Jiankun, deputy head of the state council’s expert panel on climate change policies, told China Daily.

"The country is already carrying out pilot projects on low-carbon economy in some provinces, where the carbon intensity is listed as one of the major assessment indicators," said He. "Also, the country will carry out pilot carbon trading projects in some designated areas and industries."

The resolution, which comes in the same week as India unveiled wide-ranging energy efficiency plans including proposals for a nationwide cap-and-trade scheme, will further increase pressure on rich nations to commit to deeper carbon emission cuts ahead of the UN's crucial climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.

China and India have consistently resisted calls to sign up to binding emission cuts, arguing that the onus is on rich nations, which have far higher per-capita emissions, to deliver deeper emission cuts.

Both countries have, however, repeatedly pledged to develop wide-ranging climate change strategies designed to cut emissions in the long term, something they now appear to be making progress towards.