Just days before a G8 meeting that will focus on global warming, China has produced a national plan for combating climate change that, while aggressive, fails to recommend mandatory caps on carbon emissions, indicating that an international agreement on the issue will be hard to come by.
A lengthy report released today by the Chinese government details a sweeping plan to use more wind, nuclear, and hydro energy, plant more forests, educate more people, develop new farming methods and improve overall efficiency and conservation habits that would reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent by 2010. But China, which is set to surpass the United States as the worlds' biggest greenhouse gas polluter, is highly dependent on coal and refuses to cap emissions, arguing that such a restriction would hamper economic growth and poverty alleviation.
