China says EU 2 degree warming goal lacks basis - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

China says EU 2 degree warming goal lacks basis
Reuters
Reuters - Monday, June 4 05:16 am

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday that an EU proposal seeking
to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius did not have scientific
backing and it needed to be studied before it was used to set policy.

Ma Kai, director of China's National Development and Reform Commission,
which steers climate change policy, told reporters that the EU proposal
had not been subjected to proper study. "I fear this lacks a scientific
basis," he said of the EU's proposed goal.


Link: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070604/tpl-uk-china-climate-eu-d04b660.html

---

Source: Agence France-Presse

China cool on two-degree warming limit

19 minutes ago

BEIJING (AFP) - China said Monday it would not back efforts to limit
global warming to two degrees Celsius, which UN experts have warned
is the threshold-level to stop the worst impacts of climate change.

"Whether or not we can set a limit on a two-degree (3.6 Fahrenheit)
rise in temperature I'm afraid still lacks a lot of scientific evidence
and dependable and feasible research," China's top economic planner
Ma Kai told journalists.

"There is especially no research that details the economic impact of
a two-degree restriction, nor what kind of influence such a target
would bring on the development of each nation."

Ma appeared to ignore a May report from the UN's top panel of climate
scientists that said annual global economic growth would fall by only
0.12 percentage points if warming was limited to between 2.0-2.4
degrees Celsius.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070604/sc_afp/chinaclimatewarmingeutemperature_070604074350

[aquart]

1. China's gonna have a hard, painful wakeup.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Here's the basis, China: the melting of the ice caps

But that, according to the report, might be too high, with two degrees perhaps enough to trigger melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4660938.stm

And the same goes for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which has a base largely below sea level - which means a small amount of melting means the edge becomes unstable, and the Ross and other ice shelves could break away totally - exposing the rest of the ice sheet to the sea, rapidly accelerating ice loss.

[Nihil]

3. That's OK - they're short of water at the moment!

:silly:

In all seriousness, they are well aware of the facts in the same way
that Georgie boy is well aware of the facts. Equally, they too have decided
to say "F*ck the world" and carry on for the sake of short-term profit.

:mad: