China's emissions spurred by U.S. consumption

Lisa Friedman, ClimateWire deputy editor

China holds your child's Barbie doll responsible for its greenhouse gas emissions.

That was the thrust -- albeit put a bit more diplomatically -- from Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong as he told a group of climate policy experts yesterday that the United States and Europe must take consumption into consideration when challenging China to match the European Union's commitment to cutting carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

"We are emitting greenhouse gas on your behalf," Zhou said at the National Press Club in a speech sponsored by the World Environment Center. "We are polluting the air in China so you can enjoy the products we are making."

China, Zhou said, is making "relentless" efforts to tackle climate change. He touted a litany of accomplishments -- many of them recent -- including the shuttering in 2007 of old production facilities producing millions of tons of iron, cement, steel and calcium carbide. Just recently, he noted, China created a new environmental "superministry" with broad, centrally based powers of regulation and enforcement, and the nation has committed to decreasing energy intensity 20 percent by 2010.

"Climate change is very high on the agenda of strategic economic dialogue between China and the United States. There is a lot we can do together," Zhou said.

But, he said, looking ahead to next year's international conference on global warming in Copenhagen, Denmark, "only through candid and practical cooperation throughout the world can climate change be tackled."