Standing on the brink of a year when its capital hosts the much-proclaimed ‘Green Olympics’, China is anxious to present a constructive presence at the UN climate change conference underway in Bali, Indonesia. Unlike in the past, when the country defended its poor environmental record by simply shifting blame to industrialised nations for the buildup of greenhouse gases (GhGs) in the atmosphere, China leads developing nations in demanding that the developed West subsidise efforts to contain climate change.

With its juggernaut economy China is believed to have surpassed the US as the world’s top emitter of GhGs, that cause global warming. Under the current climate-change treaty - the Kyoto protocol that expires in 2012 —developed countries have mandatory targets for emission reductions while emerging economies like China and India, are exempt. At the Bali conference, which represents the first round of negotiations aimed at hammering out a new pact to succeed the Kyoto protocol, Beijing has expressed support for an international treaty on climate change. The Chinese delegation has used the Dec 3-14 meeting to demonstrate the country’s new pro-active attitude in fighting global warming.

A “China-in-action” booth erected by the delegates to the conference has been showcasing recent policies adopted by Beijing to address climate change. Chief among them is China’s pledge to improve its energy efficiency by 20 per cent and boost the use of renewable energy to 10 per cent of its total by 2010. The booth also puts on view Beijing’s most recent decision to include environmental protection and carbon dioxide CO2 emissions as criteria in work assessments of government officials at various levels. For years, Chinese bureaucrats were appraised mainly on the basis of their abilities to deliver high economic growth.

“China is acting,” Su Wei, a member of the country’s delegation to the Bali conference, told a side-panel on China’s cooperation with the UN. “We will do what we should and what we can”. China has persistently rejected mandatory emission cuts, arguing that it needs to grow its economy to eradicate poverty and deliver prosperity to its 1.3 billion people.

“‘Made in China’ is not at all the chief culprit in driving energy prices as some have been arguing,” says Chen Yin who works on the project with the Centre for Sustainable Development under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “On the contrary, our initial research suggests that China’s manufacturing has been helping developed countries to reduce their emissionsm, “ she says.

The rise of new awareness about the many facets of China’s carbon footprint has been greeted here with a relief. The country has been under increasing international pressure to act on its environmental record, in particular, on global warming. China relies for two-thirds of its energy on dirty, polluting coal and has some of the most contaminated air and water in the world. But Chinese participants in the Bali conference have decided not to use the argument of China being the “factory of the world,” to advance their demands.

“Linking policies on climate change to international trade may be dangerous because it could lead to trade barriers,” Li Liyan, a member of the Chinese delegation told the China Business News. — IPS