Good news from China

This Reuters story is pretty heartening. All eyes - and rightly so - are on the US and Australia, who have not ratified Kyoto. Clearly countries such as China which are growing at a rapid pace (although their per capita emissions are way below those of industrialised countries) also need to start thinking of how to slow down growth of emissions.

And this is precisely what a a top Chinese energy policy maker said on Tuesday.

"China plans to reduce its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by 2010," he said.

Another issue is what they will do about their reliance on coal. "Because we're a coal dominant country, we have to take responsibility for lowering greenhouse emissions," Zhang Guobao, vice-chairman of the energy-policy setting National Development and Reform Commission, told an energy conference in Australia.

Improving energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy is crucial (and China has pretty ambitious goals on this already). But burning coal in more efficient power stations should also be a top priority...(more on this to follow in future posts).