Hu says China committed to fighting climate change

Reuters (UK) reported yesterday that President Hu Jintao (China) was committed to fighting climate change, both at home and in cooperation with the rest of the world, but stopped short of offering any new policies. Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing December's Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details.

So while the finger pointing continues, I ask myself when Sweden, Britain & Co. last offered new climate change policies. Was China's obvious reluctance to agreeing to a binding agreement in Copenhagen really an obstruction for others or has it offered a way out for those who never really wanted to act but felt the pressure from the international community? Who these days is still really committed to fighting climate change?

I cannot but wonder what goes on behind closed doors, both in individual countries and in international meetings. It might well be that a country's verbal committment to fighting climate change is all we can hope for at the moment, even though words are seldom followed by actions these days. I personally welcome China's announcement as it shows climate change is on the agenda, and is hopefully being taken seriously. What follows might write history or turn out to be yet another one of many empty promises. We can only wait and see.