The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Energy Council (WEC) jointly released a press communiqué lately in Nairobi, which spoke highly of the Chinese government's practical measures and great achievements made in reducing emissions of greenhouse gas and called for voluntary actions from international community.
Rapid economic growth will not necessarily lead to increased discharge of greenhouse gas if proper measures are adopted. China is the case that cut discharge of carbon dioxide by 400m to 900m tons in 2000 according to results of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US, said the communique.
Mr. Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of UNEP, says China has witnessed fast economic growth since 1996 while successfully reducing carbon dioxide discharge by 12 to 17 percent.
But news from the US is not encouraging. Joint survey by International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that discharge of greenhouse gas in the US has climbed from 1990's 4.8bn tons to 1998's 5.4bn tons. Now the US lets out 23 percent carbon dioxide of world total.
Although negotiations to roll back global warming have been blocked, governments, enterprises and organizations of many countries have been making effective efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas, the communiqué tells. Surveys in 91 countries indicate that they can reduce carbon dioxide discharge by at least 2bn tons every year before 2005, or 6 percent of present global amount, through projects on clean energy, energy recycling and energy saving.
(People’s Daily 07/02/2001)
