China - we WILL NOT reduce our emissions

Seems pretty clear really. The Australian government's position is that we should cut our own economic throat for nothing. Go figure. Game over: China will not make a binding commitment to reduce carbon emissions, putting in jeopardy the prospects for a global pact on climate change.   Officials from Beijing told a UN conference in Bonn yesterday that China would increase its emissions to develop its economy rather than sign up to mandatory cuts …   Hopes that Copenhagen might deliver tougher carbon reduction targets were dashed further when Japan failed to make a significant commitment to reduce emissions.   Continued Chinese economic expansion – and Japanese opposition to emissions cuts – reduces to less than irrelevant any Australian attempts at climey-warmy-carbony-changiness. Penny Wong may as well start looking for a new job. UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer’s reaction to the latest news: “For the first time in my two and a half years in this job, I don’t know what to say.”   UPDATE. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) meets Chinese officials: He point-blank asked the Premier and other high officials if they were going to participate in whatever “process” comes out of the big Copenhagen meeting (the successor to Kyoto) in December; he was told by everyone of whom he asked that question that: No, China would not be signing on to any agreements in Copenhagen - they instead plan to set up their own standards and do things their own way. Whatever “mechanisms” come out of Copenhagen, it is clear that China, India, and many other countries simply will be opting not to participate …   Given these political realities, Rep. Sensenbrenner has concluded that the cap-and-trade plans now being discussed in Congress will be disastrous - since they amount to unilateral economic disarmament. Tim Blair

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