According to Shenzhen Daily, the Central Government unveiled a national program yesterday (June 4) to combat global warming, with an aim to better control emissions of greenhouse gases, but rejected mandatory caps on emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the developed West.

Under the National Climate Change Program, the first by a developing country, China plans to use hydropower, nuclear energy, biomass fuels and gas to help cut 950 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010.

"China is a developing country. We won't undertake a quantitative task in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but that does not mean China won't undertake its greenhouse gas mitigation obligations," Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told a press conference in Beijing yesterday, two days ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Germany for a G8 meeting at which global warming will top the agenda.

"We must reconcile the need for development with the need for environmental protection," he told reporters. "In its course of modernization, China will not tread the traditional path of industrialization, featuring high consumption and high emissions. In fact, we want to blaze a new path to industrialization."

Citing figures from the International Energy Agency, Ma rebutted the argument that China is a "menace to the global environment."

"I don't see how China can be labeled a menace. Compared to the industrialized countries, until recently China had low greenhouse gas emissions and its emissions are still relatively low in per capita terms. Rises in gross domestic product in China produce smaller hikes in carbon dioxide discharges than in other countries. This kind of talk is grossly exaggerated and unfair," Ma said.

The 62-page action plan released by the NDRC called for stepped-up efforts to put the hard-charging but inefficient economy on a more sustainable footing and promised "to make significant achievements in controlling greenhouse gas emissions."

The measures include expanded research and deployment of new energy-saving technologies, improvement of agricultural infrastructure, increased tree-planting and water resource management and greater public awareness of the issue.

Editor: Wing