The Strength of Cooperation

Tsinghua University Inaugurated an ultra-energy-efficient building on July 6, 2006.

    Climate change, and how to cope with it in a coordinated manner, has become a hot topic of discussion between governments. Everybody knows global collaboration is required to tackle the problem.

    Sixteen years ago, Lin Erda attended the U.N talks for coping with climate change. "The biggest issue during the negotiation," he says, "was who should take the lead. Everyone attending the meeting was convinced that reducing emissions of greenhouse gases was the most effective approach, but they were divided about who should do it first and to what extend emissions should be reduced. These same problems are still under discussion."

    So far, the majority of emissions — about 80 percent — come from developed countries. However, according to an IPCC report, by 2030 this situation will change, and about 70 percent of new emissions will come from developing countries such as India, China and Mexico.

    "Because of the fast growth of our economy," Lin Erda continues, "our percentage of carbon dioxide emissions during the past few years is fairly high, and reducing emissions is our responsibility. Of all the world's nations, China is close to the highest emitter. However, because of its large population of 1.3 billion people, per capita emissions are very low. Low as ours are, we still need to reduce emission and raise energy efficiency. Otherwise, our economic growth will be affected."

    "If everyone in the developing countries leaves as big a carbon footprint as the average American or Canadian," remarked Mr. Khalid Malik, resident representative of the U.N Development Program in China, "we'd need nine earths working together to dissolve the pollution." For him, people in developing countries have emitted just a small portion of the total quantity of greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere, and they shouldn't be held primarily responsible for the deteriorating global environment. Those in developing countries are also most vulnerable and will be the worst affected by global warming.

    "It is everyone's responsibility, yet the action required differs from one country to another." This principle was established right at the beginning of U.N. talks on the matter, but it is still far from being implemented.

    Shouldering its part of the responsibility, China, while striving to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions, hopes to get assistance from developed countries in funds and technology. So far, little progress has been made in this area, despite repeated visits abroad by an increasing number of Chinese negotiators.

    Some media person, who was present at all parts of the talks, quoted the former U.S vice president Al Gore as saying, "Not everyone is willing to face climate change, an inconvenient truth, for reasons of interests, and not everyone is willing to solve the problem because of the cost involved."

    Lin Erda leads the second working group of the intergovernmental committee coping with climate change. For the past 18 years, he has been the key figure in compiling and evaluating a dozen or more reports on the topic. He was the compiler of the fourth IPCC evaluation report of 2007. In that report, he introduced a weather-predicting model developed by Chinese scientists, the first time the IPCC has adopted such a model from a developing country. Over 100 Chinese scientists are involved in the compilation and evaluation of IPCC reports.