Nation's image at stake in fight to cut emissions
China, one of the world's biggest polluters, has become one of the main victims of worsening global warming, while its image and credibility are at stake in an uphill battle to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a top environmental official.
But Pan Yue, a deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa), rejected intense criticism of China's ineffective pollution controls and its refusal to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions, which already rank second in the world after the US.
'The Chinese people have already realised through first-hand experience that climate change is not a scientific prediction any more, but an existing reality,' he said in an interview.
'How to deal with the reality is a test of whether China can become a responsible power and a stakeholder in the future of the world.'
While China is expected to overtake the US in two years to become the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, it has already paid dearly in frequent natural disasters and extreme weather events related to global warming.
China loses about 300 billion yuan a year in disasters related to the weather, such as droughts, typhoons, and glacial retreat, Mr Pan said.
But he added that the coal-reliant country should not be blamed for the lack of improvement in the global campaign against climate change.
'China is not guilty, but responsible [for global warming],' he said. Instead, Mr Pan said developed countries should be blamed for the phenomenon.
'China is not guilty because climate change is a result of developed countries' industrialisation over the past centuries instead of the fault of China and other developing countries.'
Mr Pan said cutting greenhouse gases in China was not just a technical issue, but one that involved political, economic, and lifestyle changes.
Last month, Beijing admitted that the mainland last year failed to reduce energy consumption by 4 per cent and emissions of pollutants by 2 per cent - targets put forward by Premier Wen Jiabao .
Mr Pan said that, as many senior Chinese officials had previously argued, the crux of pollution control in China was a lack of money and technology, 'but they don't tell the whole story'.
'[China] needs to strengthen macroeconomic controls, to reform current GDP accounting and the assessment of local officials' political performance based on GDP statistics, to set up low-carbon economic policies, and to improve public participation,' Mr Pan said.
He said apart from providing funding and technical assistance, developed countries should also play a bigger role in helping China overhaul its existing system and establish a new one.
Echoing increasing calls over the past year to upgrade Sepa from a ministerial-level agency in the State Council to a ministry of cabinet rank, Mr Pan said the country's worsening pollution could be tackled only by a much more powerful environmental authority with more resources.
'I, personally, don't think the change of title is the most important. What we want the most is strengthening of the power that has been distributed to various departments,' he said.
A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, approved by the central government, recommended Sepa be upgraded to a ministry as part of dozens of initiatives to deal with the implementation gap and other problems regarding pollution control.
Given the reality that development-minded officials have not been held accountable for their environmental performance, Mr Pan said Sepa should be granted more power to supervise local authorities and check rampant pollution disasters.
He said an overarching organisation should be created to deal with the country's gigantic environmental problems, to balance the interests of and co-ordinate between different departments, and to make final decisions.
