Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Companies urged to go green

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-23 09:04

Enterprises in China have been urged to prepare for stricter green standards in emission control and energy consumption after 2010 as the government drafts a new national policy package dealing with global warming.

Last year, the government announced its policy on climate change and set up a national team to mitigate its impact. But the policy package only outlined the goals before 2010.

"We are drafting new climate-change policy goals for the period after 2010," said Lu Xuedu, deputy director of the office of global environmental affairs at the Ministry of Science and Technology at a forum on green standards in Beijing yesterday.

He said the government will take "all the changing factors" into consideration in the policy but didn't elaborate. He also said the government is drafting its policy on diplomatic negotiations over climate change.

As a developing country, Lu said, China is not ready to promise "binding emission cut targets" at global forums but internally, it will continuously implement stricter emission controls and energy-saving measures in all sectors.

The government's stance has been firmly supported by the United Nations. "Developed countries should sincerely take their responsibility," UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told China Daily recently. "I agree with the position taken by both China and India," he added.

India will follow China's example this year to announce its national policy for tackling climate change.

Wu Jianmin, president of China Foreign Affairs University, urged businesses to "deepen their understanding" of two important trends today. One is, as the former Chinese ambassador to France put it, the "collective rise" of a group of developing countries, such as India, Brazil and China, which house about half of the world's population. The other is that "climate change is real".