The two-week United Nations Climate Change Conference held in the tropical Bali Island, Indonesia eventually came up an agreement on Roadmap on December 15. Its main contents are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a big margin, to orient future talks on setting greenhouse gas reduction emission targets for all developed nations (including the United States) and to urge developing countries to curb greenhouse gas emission growth, but no limits have so far been imposed on gases they produce.
Meanwhile, in order to better respond to global warming, the developed nations are entitled to provide aid to developing countries in such fields as technical development and transfer, and financial support, and sign a new agreement by the end of 2009 to replace the Kyoto protocol in a bid to mitigate global warming..
The main purpose of the current climate change conference is, nevertheless, to define clear-cut topics and timetable to cope with global warming. The Kyoto protocol of 1997 set to reduce the developed nations' greenhouse gas emissions by on average 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels by 2010. As the Kyoto protocol is due to end in 2012, the world is again looking to the UN and UNFCCC as the forum to agree on a new agreement for mitigating global warming, but the participants at the meeting differ widely in their views.
The European Union (EU), Australia and South Africa proposed in the conference resolution that the rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emission by 25 to 40 percent of the 1990 level by 2020, and their proposal won the support of developing countries. The U.S., the only developed nation that had not acceded to the Kyoto Protocol, opposed the specific emission reduction targets, while obliging developing countries to make commitment on cutting emissions, Japan and Canada sided with the U.S. on this issue.
With a possibility for EU to boycott the Climate Change Conference of Major Economies in January 2008 and some concessions it had made, the U.S. ultimately accepted the Bali Roadmap.
The Bali Roadmap has not easily come by and so it represents a gratifying progress. As a matter of fact, the U.S. is held responsible for one quarter of the greenhouses gases released worldwide that scientists say cause global warming, and, if it is not orbited into the future talks, the effort to contain global warming will possibly be futile.
Moreover, with regard to the Bali roadmap, importance should be attached to the adaptation to climate change, action on technology development and transfer, and fund assistance. Since these three issues are crucial for developing countries to cope with global warming and cut emissions, they should hence be put on par with global climate change mitigation, and faster and greater progress is sure to be made in the future talks in this regard.,
China, as the biggest developing nation globally, has made its due contribution in the process of spurring the Bali roadmap. It made three proposals, including one to set by the end of 2009 the target for the 2012-post years and effectively carry out regulations set in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol concerning the fund support and technology transfer, which won endorsement from all parties and were eventually accepted by the Roadmap.
Furthermore, China has contributed substantially with an endeavor to mitigate global warming. Its National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has formulated and released the country's National Climate Change Program, set up a national leading group to cope with climate change; the Chinese government has mandated that the country use 20 percent less energy in the next five years.
"This is the beginning, not the end," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, noting that it would make a contribution to emission reduction under the Bali Roadmap. He also voiced the hope that the Bali Roadmap would orientate the future talks and provide favorable conditions in effectively responding to challenges from climate change still more efficaciously for the benefits of humankind.
By People's Daily Online
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