United Nations Human Rights Council resolves to conduct panel on human rights and climate change
At the tenth session of the UN Human Rights Council, from March 11-27, the Council passed Resolution L30, which calls upon the Council to hold a panel discussion on the relationship between human rights and climate change at the eleventh session. The Maldives, an island nation southwest of India, proposed Resolution L30. The Maldives has been emerging as a proponent of environmental protection, as evidenced by a July 2007 speech of its President, Abdul Gayoom. The country recently announced a dedication to be carbon neutral by the year 2020. Since 2007, the Maldives has been urging the United Nations to globally address the issue of climate change.
Resolution L30 focuses on the effects of climate change upon economic, social, and cultural rights. The Resolution also requests the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner to conduct a study that focuses on these issues. The study and a subsequent debate will form the bases for negotiations in the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Abdulla Shahid, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Maldives, hailed the passing of the resolution “a vital day for the fight against climate change.” The panel will also focus on implementing the Bali Action plan, which sets the framework for international cooperation and use of available technologies to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.
Resolution L30 demonstrates the growing international awareness of the relationship between human rights and climate change. The resolution also exemplifies the understanding that global cooperation is the optimal way to combat climate change. Seventy-five countries supported Resolution L30, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Japan, which indicates that climate change is indeed receiving increased global attention.
Signs point to US-China cooperation on climate change
Ever since President Obama announced in his Inaugural Address that the United States will “work tirelessly” to “roll back the specter of a warming planet,” momentum has been building for the world’s top two leading emitters of greenhouse gases to cooperate on the issue of climate change. Many feel the time is ripe for such cooperation. For example, earlier this year, the Brookings Institution released a report on Overcoming Obstacles to US-China Cooperation on Climate Change, while the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the Asia Society produced A Roadmap for US-China Cooperation and Climate Change, a project which was co-chaired by current Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.
It was no great surprise, therefore, that last month during her first trip abroad as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton visited the People’s Republic of China with her Special Envoy on Climate Change Todd Stern to propose a new partnership to combat climate change. According to Secretary Clinton, “the United States and China will build an important partnership to develop and deploy clean energy technologies designed to speed our transformation to low-carbon economies.” Secretary Clinton and her counterpart Yang Jiechi also agreed that the two countries would work together to produce a new comprehensive climate change treaty at the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen in December.
The budding US-China partnership on climate change has grown out of the larger cooperative framework established by the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED), which was established in September 2006 by Presidents George W. Bush and Hu Jintao. During the fourth meeting of the SED in June 2008, the countries established the US-China Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation Framework. One product of that collaboration is the concept of EcoPartnerships, which are voluntary agreements between US and Chinese entities – such as cities, corporations, universities, etc. – to advance the energy security, economic growth, and environmental sustainability of the partners. For example, the Ford Motor Company, Changan Auto Group, the City of Denver, and the Municipality of Chongqing have created an EcoPartnership that will focus on projects like developing electrified vehicle technologies, green city planning, efficient urban transportation, and grid integration.
Taken as a whole, all these developments bode well for increased U.S.-China cooperation on climate change. As the Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu once remarked, “千里之行, 始于足下” (“The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”).
Cap and Trade in China: Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin establishing emissions exchanges
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that China is taking steps to set up a nationwide emissions trading system. Specifically, the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin are in the process of setting up emissions exchanges modeled on the cap-and-trade system developed in the United States to control sulfur dioxide emissions. The Shanghai and Beijing exchanges were launched in early August, and the Tianjin Climate Exchange was launched in late October. The Tianjin exchange is a joint venture formed by Chinese and American partners, including the giant energy conglomerate China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), which is the parent of PetroChina, China’s largest oil and gas producer and distributor, and the Chicago Climate Exchange, the company behind the world’s first voluntary trading system to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
China’s establishment of these exchanges represents a small positive step forward for the country, which is now recognized as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, but setting up these exchanges may be considered a symbolic act rather than a practical measure designed to mitigate emissions. China’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) calls for reducing “major pollutants” by 10 percent. Last year China also promulgated its National Climate Change Programme, setting forth the country’s positions and plans for dealing with climate change. In particular, China advocates the mitigation of greenhouse gases, “adaptation” to climate change, enhanced technology cooperation and transfer, full implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and regional cooperation on climate change.
Another fundamental position held by China is that developed countries should take the lead on the issue of climate change. As explained in a Congressional report released earlier this fall, “China has long believed that established industrial powers need to act first because they built their wealth largely by burning fossil fuels and adding to the atmosphere’s greenhouse gases.” This position was echoed last month by Vice-Minister Xie Zhenhua of China’s National Development and Reform Commission when China released a white paper entitled “China’s Policies and Actions on Climate Change.” Mr. Xie said that, “developed countries should, at least, contribute 0.7% of their GDP” to help developing countries combat climate change. The white paper itself did not announce any major policy changes, although there was the occasional startling admission regarding China’s ability to fight climate change: “[China’s] coal-dominated energy mix cannot be substantially changed in the near future, thus making the control of greenhouse gas emissions rather difficult.” If China were to establish a nationwide emissions trading system, that would certainly help make the task somewhat easier.
