Most people involved say that the UN summit on climate change was a complete failure as it failed to produce a binding resolution that would make it law for countries to lower their carbon emissions. Since the failed summit leaders have been pointing fingers and trying to figure out exactly what went wrong in their attempt to set realistic goals. Several prominent members of the UK government blamed China for the failure saying that it was the Chinese refusal to budge on any issue that forced the summit to dismiss without a resolution. The European Union, along with the United States both agreed to sign the legislation but China refused. In the wake of these accusations China has tried to save face by claiming that it was not them alone who caused the failure and also saying that they are keeping an open mind on the issue of climate change.
The reason the Chinese are boasting about their “open minds” is because many high ranking members of the government do not even believe that global warming is manmade. In fact, China’s lead climate change negotiator recently said he was trying to keep an open mind about whether climate change was caused by natural weather cycles or was caused by human behavior. Xie Zhenhua was responding to the recent IPCC report that erroneously claimed the Himalayan glaciers were melting. Although he admitted that climate change was real he said that it was important to look at all evidence, some of which suggests climate change is natural.
|
|
