Policy

China promised to improve the energy efficiency of homes, businesses and power plants in a bid to cut emissions at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York yesterday.

President of China Hu Jintao pledged that the country would try to reduce CO₂ emission by a “notable margin” by 2020 on 2005 levels but stopped short of setting an actual target.

Amid mounting frustration in the run up to the Copenhagen meeting in December, many commentators and NGOs were disappointed that Hu did not promise more.

However, Hu did acknowledge the urgency of reaching a deal at Copenhagen and said that climate change issues are now part of the country’s long-term economic strategy.

“The Chinese move will help create the world’s largest market for the technology and the know-how needed to combat climate change,” says James Cameron, executive director of Climate Change Capital, who chaired a UN Leadership forum discussion on business and finance.

“China is moving rapidly to create the incentives for low carbon investments. I think it is quite possible that they will have an effectively functioning carbon market before the US,” he adds.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged attendees at the Summit that with only 15 negotiating days to go until Copenhagen talks must accelerate and the ambition of offers on the table must increase.

“Failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise,” he told the Summit. “We cannot go down this road.”

For further information:
www.un.org/wcm/content/site/climatechange/cache/offonce/pages/2009summit/newsroom;jsessionid=CE99CAB9B3D6473478037372700D5E2E
www.climatechangecapital.com/

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Business leaders urge global action on climate change (22-Sept)
China’s energy intensity continues to fall (3-Aug)
China and India make headway on energy efficiency (30-Apr)