David Victor Co-Writes Article for Newsweek on China's Efforts to Curb Emissions
"China is Going Green"
12/06/2009
Gary Dirks and David G. Victor,
Newsweek
Back in the 1990s, when diplomats were designing the Kyoto treaty on global warming, they exempted China from any requirement to control emissions. The country was too poor, the thinking went, and had many more urgent priorities to tend to. A decade later, that thinking has changed. Having surpassed the United States as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse pollutant, China is now seen as a laggard.
The reality, however, is different. In the past few years, severe pollution and worries over dependence on fossil fuels have prompted the Chinese government to launch a radical transformation in how the country uses energy. It is embracing efficiency, imposing limits on pollution, and investing in new green technology that it can sell worldwide.
Read the rest of the article here.
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David Victor is director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation, based at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies.
Click here to visit David Victor's website.
