Green Options

As climate change legislation makes its way through Congress and stakeholders increase pressure on businesses and government to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, AltaTerra Research will be hosting the web conference “Carbon Footprint Reduction for the Long Haul.” This event will be held Thursday, December 3rd at 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. EST and will feature a case study of carbon management software implementation by the City of Palo Alto, [...]

China appears to be backing out of global efforts to address climate change, intensifying pre-Copenhagen debate.

A top China central government think tank yesterday released a framework for quantifying countries’ historical emissions. Under this proposed framework, the State Council Development Research Center (DRC) would create a “historic account” of past emissions, used to benchmark developing countries with lower accumulated emissions - like China - against countries with higher accumulated emissions and assign emissions “deficits” to countries who have emitted less. Using this quantitative assessment, countries with emissions “deficits” would get the green light to emit, or trade emissions credits with countries that have already exceeded their allowance.

The release of this plan supports external analysis that China believes it should have the right to develop free from carbon reductions until their accumulated emissions are on par with industrialized countries. A recent Brookings Institute report: “Overcoming Obstacles to US-China Cooperation on Climate Change” articulated Beijing’s stance, which included the conviction that:

Countries should be held responsible not only for their current emissions but also for their cumulative historical emissions, given that greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere over many decades.

This plan is Beijing’s most comprehensive effort to date to both highlight and quantify development inequalities as a justification for releasing China and other developing countries from emissions reduction expectations.

With much fanfare, President George Bush gave a recent speech announcing new commitments by the United States towards the prevention of climate change.

The speech was widely covered here on Green Options and in the general media, with many feeling that this was a case of too little, too late.

Of course, this was not particularly surprising, and few people were gearing themselves up for the potential announcement of a dramatic change in policy. But what has been interesting is the unprecedented criticism from world leaders disappointed with the lack of US commitment: