China calls for credit for curbing population
The Copenhagen summit should formally credit the mainland's population control measures, such as the one-child policy, for mitigating the human impact on climate, a senior mainland negotiator at the summit has proposed.
The suggestion is just one of many slightly off-the-wall contributions to the climate-change negotiations, with countries desperately seeking advantages in bringing down their emissions figures.
Zhao Baige, vice-minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said people needed to stop seeing climate change as either an economic or environmental problem.
They should look at it as an all- encompassing issue that included population, natural resources and sustainable development, the vice-minister said.
'China's population management has made an important contribution to the goal of finding a global solution to climate change,' she said.
Zhao said the mainland's family planning policies had brought the birth rate down from 1.8 children per woman of child-bearing age to 1.2 over the past 30 years, resulting in about 400 million fewer births.
Taking the global average for carbon emissions of 4.57 tonnes per capita, she said, that was effectively equivalent to a cut of 1.83 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
There are six main greenhouse gases. Each gas has a different global-warming potential. For simplicity of reporting, the mass of each gas emitted is commonly translated into a carbon dioxide equivalent amount so that the total impact from all sources can be expressed as one figure.
China's annual emissions currently stand at more than 6.28 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide - based on 2007 figures - slightly higher than the US, making it the single largest producer of greenhouse gases.
However, when looked at from a per capita basis, the comparison is very different. China only produces 4.8 tonnes per person, compared to 19.9 tonnes in the US and 9.3 tonnes in Britain. Zhao said China's population - currently 1.36 billion - was expected to reach 1.45 billion by 2020 before peaking at 1.5 billion.
'From then on, as the population gradually declines, the average standard of living will begin to approach that of a mid-tier developed nation.'
Zhao's comments came on Thursday as competing versions of the draft treaty were being bounced around the summit venue.
These proposals include several from developing nations that seek to redress the balance of power and place more pressure on major developed nations.
People power
China says its birth rate has been reduced in the past 30 years
It says during this time its family planning policies have led to a lower birth rate and the number of children being born has been reduced by: 400m
