British Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling called on Tuesday for China to take a leading role in combating the ill effects of climate change, citing China's increasing global influence. Speaking to students at Renmin University in Beijing, Darling said the United Kingdom and China should work together in fighting what he said was potentially one of the biggest challenges facing governments around the world. "We should ... take a lead in showing that you can have economic growth and at the same time tackle the harmful effects of climate change," Darling said in a speech.

Darling said that China could help by supporting the creation of an international treaty binding countries to reduce carbon emissions, on top of the Kyoto Protocol -- which many countries have ratified but which lacks the participation of key countries including the United States. "It s important that we move towards a treaty beyond Kyoto that all countries can sign onto, particularly developing countries, and this is where China does have a role to play," he said in response to a student's question.

Darling also said the United Kingdom and China had scope to enhance their collaboration on technology for capturing and storing carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants. Britain participates in a European Union demonstration project on near zero-emissions coal technology in China and the EU that was first announced last year.

China is the world s largest producer and consumer of coal, on which it relies for more than 80 percent of its electricity production. It is also the world s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the United States. Darling cited a recent report by chief British government economist Nicholas Stern in underlining the urgency of addressing the climate change issue.

"It is a global challenge that demands action across the world," he said. "Either we tackle these problems internationally, or we ll not tackle it at all. The costs of inaction in the future will be far greater than trying to tackle climate change now." Darling also stressed the importance of China s opening its markets in a transparent way.

He added that China s growing influence meant it had an important role to play in pushing for the relaunch and successful conclusion of the Doha Round of trade liberalisation talks, which were suspended in July over differences between major trading nations on farm tariffs and subsidies.
(Planet Ark, 29/11/2006)