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BEIJING: China warned Wednesday its heavy dependence on coal to fuel its fast-growing economy made it difficult to control greenhouse gas emissions, but said fighting global warming remained imperative.
Releasing a policy paper on climate change, the Chinese government acknowledged the deep impact global warming had already made on the world's most populous nation - and warned of much worse to come.
"Extreme climate phenomena, such as high temperatures, heavy precipitation and severe droughts, have increased in frequency and intensity," the so-called "White Paper" said.
If not alleviated, these phenomena will increase natural disasters, reduce grain yields and impact livestock raising, hampering the nation's efforts to feed its 1.3 billion people, it said.
According to the paper, China experienced 21 warm winters from 1986 to 2007, the latter being the warmest 12 months since detailed records began being taken in 1951.
But coal, the cheapest and most plentiful source of fuel in China, will remain its major energy source.
"(The) coal-dominated energy mix cannot be substantially changed in the near future, thus making the control of greenhouse gas emissions rather difficult," the paper said.
China is dependent on coal for about two thirds of its energy use, causing it to rise quickly in recent years to now rank alongside the United States as one of the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases.
Nevertheless, Vice Minister of Planning Xie Zhenhua said balancing environmental protection with economic development was a top priority for the Chinese government.
"China from its own perspective must realise sustainable development, we must save energy, raise energy efficiency, develop renewable energies and adopt measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gases," Xie told reporters.
"This is so because of factors deciding China's national conditions, we must do this because there is no other road for China except the road to sustainable development."
Xie pointed to already released Chinese policies aimed at fighting global warming, such as binding targets to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 per cent from 2006 to 2010.
He said China was also "enthusiastically" expanding the use of alternative energies such as hydro, nuclear, wind and solar power.
China will also remain an active participant in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Xie said.
However he repeated China's long-held position that developed nations must take the lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Developed nations also must fulfil their commitment to provide energy saving technological transfers to developing nations as specified in the convention, he said, repeating another longstanding Chinese demand.
"I think at least developed nations should contribute 0.7 per cent of their GDP to help developing nations face climate change. This can be done, but up to now they are far away from this level," he said.
China and the United Nations will jointly host a climate change conference on technology transfers in Beijing next week to be attended by up to 100 nations.
On the issue of ranking alongside the United States as the world's biggest greenhouse has emitters, Xie pointed out that China would be far lower down the scale if it was measured on a per-capita basis.
"If our overall emissions are similar to that of the United States, per capita-wise that means that China's 1.3 billion people emit about one fifth of emissions of the 300 million people in the United States," he said.
- AFP/yb
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