China in a Post-Kyoto Architecture

The questions of climate change and environmental protection are now a clear component of Beijing’s official rhetoric. Already taken into account in the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2000-2005) with few concrete results, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and conservation have become some of the leading priorities in the roadmap set down by the government for 2006-2011. Despite the scientific uncertainties surrounding the question((1), there is no longer any doubt in China that the country’s exponential economic growth is a major contributor to the degradation of the natural environment.