China's Climate Policy Shames the US

The chief US complaint about international climate regimes - the main reason George W. Bush gave for withdrawing US support from the Kyoto Protocol - was that developing countries, including China, were not required to commit to reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), despite the fact that China is now the world's leading emitter of GHGs (though not per capita).

China, which had already self-imposed a carbon-intensity reduction target (that is, a target to reduce GHG emissions per unit of production, which does not necessarily entail a reduction in total annual emissions), today announced that it will impose binding emission-reduction targets on each of its regions as part of that effort. Scientific American has the story here.

This is a small but important step in the Chinese government's development of a domestic climate policy. As always, the proof will be in the pudding. (Will China actually enforce and verify emissions reductions?) But at least China is taking action, which is something the US government has yet to do since President Bush denounced the Kyoto Protocol, despite the fact that per capita income in the US is nearly 8 times that of China (based on purchasing power parity). At least 130 million Chinese citizens still live on $1/day or less. Given this, China's climate commitment puts the US government to shame.