China seeks intensified framework on climate change

MANILA, Philippines - China maintains that the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) ongoing in Copenhagen, Denmark should further strengthen the full, effective and sustained implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao said yesterday.

“COP15 should focus its efforts on making clear and concrete arrangement for mitigation, adaptation, technology transfer and financial support,” he said in a statement sent to The STAR.

He said that China will “work with all Parties actively and constructively to lock in gains already achieved in the negotiations, seek further common ground and exert our best efforts to make the COP15 an encouraging success.”

China has taken its own step towards that end by announcing voluntary emission reduction targets.

Last Nov.26, China announced that it would reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared to 2005 levels. China will also devote major efforts to developing renewable and nuclear energies to ensure that the consumption of non-fossil power account for 15 percent of the country’s total primary energy consumption by 2020. 

China will increase the country’s forest area and stock volume by 40 million hectares and 1.3 billion cubic meters, respectively, from the level of 2005.

China’s National Climate Change Program includes mandatory national targets for reducing energy intensity by about 20 percent by 2010. The proportion of renewable energy, including large-scale hydropower, in primary energy supply will be raised up to 10 percent by 2010, and to 15 percent by 2020.