AP: UN Climate Chief Says China Poised to Lead

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- As the United States lags on climate legislation, the U.N. climate chief says China is poised to join the European Union in claiming "front-runner" status among nations battling climate change.

Yvo de Boer said in an Associated Press interview Monday that China is leaping ahead of the United States with domestic plans for more energy efficiency, renewable sources of power, cuts in vehicle pollution and closures of dirty plants.

"China and India have announced very ambitious national climate change plans. In the case of China, so ambitious that it could well become the front-runner in the fight to address climate change," de Boer said. "The big question mark is the U.S."

He spoke on the eve of a U.N. summit of 100 world leaders intended to rally momentum for crafting a new global climate pact at Copenhagen, Denmark in December. Bush had rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting global emissions of warming gases based on its exclusion of major developing nations like China and India.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will announce new plans to fight global warming at a U.N. summit on climate change on Tuesday. China already has said it is seeking to use 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

China and the U.S. together account for about 40 percent of all the world's emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other industrial warming gases.

De Boer said he also was encouraged by Japan's new goal of a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020.

President Barack Obama has been trying to build momentum for a new climate pact to succeed the Kyoto accord that required mandatory cuts in atmospheric warming gases expires but expires at the end of 2012. His administration has announced a target of returning to 1990 levels of greenhouse emissions by 2020.

But with Congress moving slowly on a measure to curb emissions, the United States could soon find itself with little influence when 120 countries convene in Copenhagen.

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Comments

[Mila]

Excellent information.. which I believe will be very useful for me

[hard to port]

So the logical conclusion that can be drawn from the “earth has gotten cooler the last 10 years” is that when the earth warms up the polar caps will increase in size and there will be growth in glaciers. Is this the logic? My question is based on (“a picture is worth a thousand words”) satellite photos showing the decrease in ice coverage around the globe.

[mark phillips]

the cophenhagen convention is nothing but a way to get the US to become the money man here and allow other countrys to tell us how to spend our money. they get the results we get the bill. president obama needs to say no to this treaty too. there is no global warming, since the earth has gotten cooler the last 10 years. its time to focus on the usa not the rest of the world.

[Hard To Port]

I did not know the “Flat Earther’s” could comprehend that they are not at the center of the Earth, let alone Global Warming. After all a lot of them believe the earth is only 6,000 years old. How could man effect the environment? This question I hear a lot. They have no comprehension of Agent Orange, or what 100 megatons is. So let them alone in their little self- centered bubble. Go for it China you are light years ahead of us!!

[Kenneth Jenkins]

Now America will have to wake up and do their share for our environment.