China Clarifies Plan To Maybe Set Non-Binding "Peak Emission" Year During 2015 Talks Blahblahblah
With climate treaty negotiations expected to intensify next year, China is signaling that it may soon set the timetable for hitting an eventual peak in its emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important human-generated greenhouse gas. The signals came on Monday from Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead climate treaty negotiator, speaking at a German climate conference. Here’s coverage by Xinhua, China’s government-echoing “news” agency:
China might announce a “peaking year” for its carbon emissions in the first half of 2015 when the country would present its contributions to address global climate change, said China’s chief climate negotiator on Monday.
China was trying to present its “national determined contributions” in the first half of next year. Among the contributions, “the peaking year might be included,” Xie Zhenhua, deputy chief of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters during an informal ministerial conference in Berlin.
The annual conference, known as Petersberg Climate Dialogue [link], was organized by the German federal government and attended by some 35 ministers this year. [Read the rest.]
It’s interesting to note that the website Responding to Climate Change, also posting from the meeting, used the word “capping” where Xinhua used “peaking.” A peak (as in “peak travel”) can be reached without a binding cap, and the difference is not merely semantic, especially in the endless climate standoff between the United States and China over who goes first, and when. (My bet is that peak is more accurate; I’d love to hear from any Chinese speakers who were there or have access to the transcript.) [It turns out I was right.]
EDIT
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/china-clarifies-its-plans-on-setting-a-co2-emissions-peak/?_php=true&_type=blogs&partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
