China, home of a burgeoning economy that is causing the largest increase in greenhouse gas emissions year-to-year of any country on earth, said today that it will set a goal for reducing the growth in that pollution from sources within its borders.
The government news agency, Xinhua, announced that the nation's government will seek a 40 to 45 percent reduction in "carbon intensity," compared to 2005 emission levels, by 2020.
The commitment comes on the heels of a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, in Beijing on Nov. 16.
The Xinhua announcement also said that China's premier, Wen Jiabao, will attend the United Nations summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen next month.
China's decision to set a target for lowering the rate of growth in the country's greenhouse gas emissions follows by one day the announcement from the White House that the United States will seek to lower such emissions "in the range" of about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.
However, China has refused to promise an absolute reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, according to Xinhua, the nation will lower the amount of greenhouse gas emissions relative to the growth of its economy.
The term "carbon intensity" refers to the quantity of carbon dioxide relative to a unit of gross domestic product.
China's communist government has insisted that concerns about the environmental impact of greenhouse gas pollution of the atmosphere must not be given greater weight than economic growth and that developed nations, especially the United States, should lower their greenhouse gas emissions first.
International pressure to lower greenhouse gas emissions has focused on China because the country now emits the largest amount of such gases in the world and continues to build coal-fired power plants at a rapid pace.
Coal-burning is a leading cause of carbon dioxide pollution, which in turn increases the greenhouse effect that causes increases in the worldwide average air temperature.
China gets about 80 percent of its electricity from coal.
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