{"id":4306,"date":"2009-03-18T06:56:38","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T12:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4306"},"modified":"2009-03-18T06:56:38","modified_gmt":"2009-03-18T12:56:38","slug":"chinas-g20-summit-performance-likely-to-affect-climate-treaty-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/chinas-g20-summit-performance-likely-to-affect-climate-treaty-outcome\/","title":{"rendered":"China Taking Uncooperative Stance on G20, Climate Treaty Terms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The G20 Global Summit<\/a>, which will take place in the UK in April, stands to be an important factor in determining China\u2019s stance on climate change commitments as Copenhagen<\/a> draws near.<\/h3>\n

First, this meeting will provide the US and China a chance to meet behind the scenes, for the first time since Hillary Clinton<\/a> visited China last month to initiate a discussion on robust bilateral coordination on energy and climate issues. Both Clinton and her Chinese counterparts suggested in February that the G20 meeting would give the two nations\u2019 leaders a chance to move ahead with the compact. The next step may well be a US-China leader summit, which a recent policy think tank \u201croadmap\u201d for collaboration, given to Clinton in advance of her trip, identified as a crucial building block in the process.<\/p>\n

Secondly, this meeting will give other countries some signposts as to what they can expect from China in December. G20 participants have already expressed their expectation that China will ante up in this time of global economic need. Gauging the tone of China\u2019s reaction to G20 participants\u2019 financial demands will provide participating OECD countries \u2013 particularly those expecting China to make serious commitments on emissions reductions in the \u201cGreen New Deal<\/a>\u201d \u2013 some hint as to what a distressed China can be expected to deliver in environmental negotiation terms. The last two weeks\u2019 NPC legislative session<\/a> in Beijing definitively demonstrated that China\u2019s first priority is repairing the economy, not the environment. Thus, China’s reaction to the key role G20 participants expect her to play in the summit may serve as an accurate litmus test for anticipated outcomes in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

China Ascending, if Somewhat Awkwardly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chinese leaders are not accustomed to being in this kind of spotlight. They have been known to remain quiet listeners in previous international accords, choosing to survey the scene rather than make a flourish onto it. This record of international engagement, or lack thereof, contrasts significantly with statements China\u2019s leadership have made internally regarding her position and influence in the international arena.<\/p>\n

The timeline of nationalist, if not almost bellicose, proclamations that China will soon dominate, and play a strong role in, international affairs uttered by Hu Jintao and others began with the \u201cpeaceful rise<\/a>\u201d theory promulgated in 2005. These statements \u2013 which were toned down significantly in the run-up to the Olympics, but flared again in the face of criticism from countries like France and the US over the government\u2019s response to last year\u2019s Tibetan Buddhist-led demonstrations in Lhasa<\/a> \u2013 have at times generated confusion on how responsive China\u2019s leadership will be to international perspectives, and on which issues is China willing to act multilaterally, rather than unilaterally.<\/p>\n

James Fallows<\/a> characterized China\u2019s inconsistent behavior in a November 2008 Atlantic<\/em> article, arguing:<\/p>\n

The damage China does to itself by its clumsy public presentation is obvious\u2014though apparently not yet obvious enough to its leadership. For outsiders, the central problem is that a country that will inevitably have increasing and perhaps dominant influence on the world still has surprisingly little idea of how the world sees it. That, in turn, raises the possibility of blunders and unnecessary showdowns, and in general the predicament of a new world power stomping around, Gargantua-like, making onlookers tremble.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the lead up to the summit, the UK and other countries have called on China to play a major role in the global recovery. Already, rumblings from China\u2019s state-controlled media suggest leaders are not willing to meet demands that China bolster IMF<\/a> funding, besides in a paltry, primarily symbolic, way. Why does China seem unwilling to do more, to \u201cpull their weight\u201d given the country\u2019s abundant liquidity and an economy still highly dependent on global demand?<\/p>\n

Developing Countries, with Benefits
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer boils down to China\u2019s strategic insistence that it is still a poor country deserving of the rest of the world\u2019s assistance; not the other way around. G. John Ikenberry<\/a>, a well-known international relations theorist who focuses on foreign policy has said that \u201cAs China sheds its status as a developing country (and therefore as a client of these institutions), it will increasingly be able to act as a patron and stakeholder instead.\u201d In times like these, and on subjects like carbon abatement, China plays the developing country<\/a> card, in hopes it will give them reprieve from costly and complicated climate commitments.<\/p>\n

China’s “non-developed” status is alluded to as part of China’s position on climate policy, which the\u00a0Brookings Institution<\/a> \u201cOvercoming Obstacles to US-China Cooperation on Climate Change\u201d report lays out as:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Developed countries have already gone through high-emissions stages of development while developing countries still have much of this work to do. International agreements should recognize this fundamental reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other two framework issues identified in the report are:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metrics should not focus on total national emissions and neglect to account for per capita emissions in densely-populated countries.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While environmentalists remain hopeful they can navigate around, or find cracks, in this framework, they are unlikely to reach consensus on the issue of responsibility.<\/p>\n

The Blame Game<\/strong><\/p>\n

A controversial new report \u201cJourney to world top emitter\u201d, which will soon be published in Geophysical Research Letters<\/em>, concludes that 50 percent of increases in Chinese CO2 emissions<\/a> between 2002 to 2005 were due to export production, of which 60 percent came from goods exported to western countries. This study, and others like it, point to Western consumption-driven culpability.<\/p>\n

The scholarship-supported assignment of guilt is shaping China\u2019s position on the terms of the next climate change treaty. Just Monday, during a trip to Washington, senior climate official, Li Gao<\/a>, insisted that China\u2019s export sector be exempt from carbon emissions reductions in the next treaty on climate change.<\/p>\n

Given the state of the global economy, and China\u2019s latest G20 Summit and Washington posturing on financial and environmental commitments, China\u2019s leverage in the international arena is clearly on the rise. For the sake of the environment, let\u2019s hope it\u2019s not just peaceful, but sustainable too.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Foxspain on Flickr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The G20 Global Summit, which will take place in the UK in April, stands to be an important factor in determining China\u2019s stance on climate change commitments as Copenhagen draws [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":4308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,60,21],"tags":[2866,204,2867,2868,201,2869,2870,2871,2872,162,2873,2874,2875,2876,2877,1306,2878,692,2879,2880],"yoast_head":"\nChina Taking Uncooperative Stance on G20, Climate Treaty Terms • Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/chinas-g20-summit-performance-likely-to-affect-climate-treaty-outcome\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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