Countries that block global climate change deal risk isolation: Miliband

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/06/miliband-us-climate-change

Countries that block global climate change deal risk isolation: Miliband

Climate minister says Obama's commitment to environment has raised prospects of global agreement at UN summit in December

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 March 2009 11.02 GMT

Countries that stand in the way of a global warming treaty now risk international isolation because of the US's new commitment under Barack Obama to reaching a deal, the climate change secretary, Ed Miliband has said.
Link to this audio

Miliband, who was in Washington this week, meeting members of Obama's green team, said the change in the administration had dramatically improved the prospects for reaching an agreement at a UN summit in Copenhagen in December.

"There is a real important point about the change that Obama creates and that is that nobody really wants to be the country that wrecks this global deal," Miliband said.

Obama campaigned on a promise to commit America to a climate change treaty and to create new green jobs. His predecessor, George Bush, made America a climate change pariah by rejecting the Kyoto protocol, arguing that it would hurt US business interests while making no demands on emerging economies like China and India. Other nations were able to point to the non-cooperation of the US, then the world's biggest polluter, as a reason for inaction.

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[David Dunham]

1. The Senate will not ratify a climate deal if it lets China keep getting away with a lot of pollution

[Deja Q]

3. So China might become the isolationist country?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. New energy "a must" for China: chief energy officia

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/08/content_10971591.htm

New energy "a must" for China: chief energy official

2009-03-08 21:52:42

BEIJING, March 8 -- The development of new energy forms should be an important strategy in tackling China's energy shortages and pollution, and global climate change, the head of the National Energy Administration said Saturday.

China needed to invest more in research and development and production of new energy sources, or risk falling behind other countries, said Zhang Guobao, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In China, coal accounts for about 70 percent of total energy consumption, compared with a world average of 30 percent.

The government has said it will promote clean energies, such as nuclear, wind, and solar power, this year.

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