China focus

When world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December to thrash out the replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, a small nations will play a pivotal role. Having looked at Brazil last issue, we now shift the focus to China. number of The stated objectives of China´s National Climate Change Program are: to make significant achievements in controlling GHG emissions; to enhance the capability of continuous adaptation to climate change; to promote climate-change-related science, technology and R&D to a new level; to raise public awareness of climate change; and to further strengthen institutions and mechanisms on climate change. The plan stresses the need for adaptation of human and natural systems without hindering economic development. There is also a great focus on national level policy/legislative approaches to enhance China´s overall adaptive capacity. The adaptation strategies proposed tend to be large in scope and scale the vision of the plan is impressive, but the document lacks specific targets and action-steps for realising these goals.