China's Part in Climate Change

Just recently, within the last two weeks, China has been dubbed as the lone leader in production of greenhouse gas emissions, which are undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental threats to our planet’s climate. At the UN gathering last week, President Obama addressed China’s newest title, asking that they stride for “drastic reductions” in their nation’s carbon emissions. Seeming almost too prepared to address Obama’s request, China responded with a swift refusal to simply cut emissions without heavy assistance from western developed nations.
A document that China submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change goes on to state their expectations of the rest of the world, predominately developed western states and those who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol (the US did not) regarding the finances and technological logistics of reducing their own carbon emissions. These requests include payments of $1 Billion increments by developed western developed states, payments of 1% of GDP of these western developed states, and abolishment of western intellectual property rights which are argued to slow down technological advancement in developing countries regarding climate control. The document goes on to state that new plans for climate control should not only, as said, financed by the west, but should also be built upon the already existing Kyoto Protocol, which the US never ratified because of a disagreement regarding relaxed parameters the deal placed on the two of the biggest greenhouse gas producers in the world: China and India.
How Obama reacts toward China after these bold propositions will be interesting to look out for in the near future. It is pretty evident that by no means does China appear to believe that they are a ‘developed’ nation. Whether or not China is developed or developing can be argued extensively, however in this instance China appears to think they deserve to be treated like a strictly developing nation which severely needs the help of the western developed ones. When choosing how to deal with China regarding their demand for funds and technology, Obama and other western leaders should keep in mind exactly how China views themselves before making any decisions about assisting them with a problem which is in their “not developed” backyard. Of course the rest of the world has assisted China in creating the mess in one way or another, but whether or not Obama agrees China should avoid bearing the burden of the financial burden will contribute in whether he and others act in a liberal manner or one more similar to realism. The fact that China appears to be convinced that they are definitely not in the same league as western developed nations should also be noted when it comes to issues further down the road, involving the climate change or not. This is a pretty significant characterization of themselves and should definitely be taken into account when western nations choose to look out for their own interests or choose to bear this alleged burden upon themselves and agree with China’s assertions regarding how the climate change situation in their state should be dealt.