We're heading in to a challenging few years of international climate change negotiations. In Copenhagen in 2009, world leaders will hopefully agree to a new global agreement on addressing climate change. But the U.S. and some other developed countries continue to play politics on this most crucial of issues by laying the blame for rising global emissions on China instead of facing up to their own responsibilities and engaging in a real discussion about action.
The recent G8 summit in Hokkaido provides an illustrative example. The assembled nations were happy to agree to a speculative long-term goal, but not talk about divvying up short-term targets. Worse still, U.S. President George Bush preposterously blamed China for a lack of action on climate change, despite his own government spending much of the last 8 years playing a spoiler role in international negotiations on climate issues. At the end of the meeting, China and other key developing nations simply rejected G8 rhetoric.
Of course, China is not wholly innocent - the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said that last year China was responsible for two-thirds of the global increase in CO2 emissions. Despite this, it's worth remembering that this is a country that has only very recently industrialised and, as such, doesn't carry the burden of historical responsibility for atmospheric greenhouse gas build-up. The average Chinese person has a carbon footprint which is less than a fifth of the average American footprint, and that's without even beginning to address the even trickier question of how much of China's carbon is ‘embedded' in products made for consumption in the U.S. and other developed nations.
So playing the blame game simply doesn't help and the world still really needs China and the United States to be actively involved in a new agreement. So how do we, as global citizens, have any impact on a largely closed negotiation? How do we talk to China and stimulate their involvement?
Celsias, of course, isn't just about questions -- it's about finding solutions. So I'm pleased to announce that over on chinadialogue.net we're launching "Bali to Copenhagen", a new project to bring bilingual (English and Chinese), expert debate to key climate-change issues. As Wu Changhua of the Climate Group said, the project is designed to "bridge the gap of understanding between China and other major countries to move the international community towards that agreement."
chinadialogue has secured the input of an impressive array of advisers from think-tanks, academic institutions and governments from around the world. But now we need your help. Any comment you post on the site will be translated and read by a large audience in China. So come check it out, comment, argue and share your ideas with China and the world.
