China: Rich nations should pay to fight climate change

[ben_meyers]

Source: USA Today, today

BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday richer countries should set aside 1% of their gross domestic product to help poorer nations fight global warming.
China has long called on developed countries to shoulder what it says is their historic burden to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, that are chiefly responsible for causing a rise in global temperatures. But the latest remarks by a senior Chinese climate official were the first to propose specific demands on rich countries.

"The funds that developed countries provide for developing countries to deal with climate change should represent approximately 1% of the GDP of the developed countries," said Gao Guangsheng, who heads the climate change office at the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body.(snip)

China now generates a large share of the world's greenhouse gases, with some experts saying it has already overtaken the U.S. as the world's No. 1 emitter.




Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/2008-10-28-china-global_N.htm?csp=34

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So they have crapped the bed and now want to "soak the rich" to clean it up? No where do they seem to be willing to contribute.


FTA:
China, India and other large developing countries signed the accord but refused to accept a binding agreement that they said would limit their development and their ability to ease poverty at home.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. They want a bailout. guess they saw what was done for the banks, and they want some of that...

[Coventina]

2. I guess that would be China, since it holds most of our debt.

We're not rich, we're bankrupt!!

(This is not intended to mean that I think we in the US shouldn't take responsibility for global warming. I'm just amused by the way China is trying to skirt their part.)

[ben_meyers]

3. It seems to have been a fair transaction

we bought their crappy products and financed it with our crappy debt.

WIN WIN!

[NickB79]

4. To be fair, we've all crapped the bed

Europe and North America were burning coal and oil more than a century before China even began to industrialize. China just caught up in record time. Cumulatively though, European and North American nations have released FAR more CO2 in the past century through industrialization than China and India have, simply because we've had such a massive head start.

But that is neither here nor there. This kind of bickering is delaying any kind of meaningful global CO2 reduction plan. ALL nations need to pay for it. If China and India don't pay for their share, that doesn't absolve the US or Europe from still paying for their share of climate reduction programs.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. Well, that gets US off the hook.

[PaulaFarrell]

6. "they" have crapped the bed?

get real

the last time I checked, the USA still has 5% of the population and emits 25% of the carbon. and the only reason that figure is so low is that we have outsourced out manufacturung to another country so that it looks like they are the ones doing the emitting. do you comprehend the amount of poverty that most chinese poeple live in?

I believe it is actually the west that 'crapped the bed' and now expects the rest of the world to get by on eating beans and living in grass huts so that the poor crapped-upon americans can keep their fucking SUVs and air conditioning. bite me. seriously.

[brentspeak]

8. The last time I checked, China was happily polluting their own country

No one is twisting China's arm to turn its own country into a cesspool.

[cobalt1999]

7. They are the rich now, so I guess they need to start funding it.

We are probably the poorest country (with our debt) in the world.