"China rejected scrutiny of efforts to limit carbon emissions, a key tool that the U.S. says is necessary as more than 190 countries work to devise a new deal to fight climate change.
Chinese negotiators sought yesterday at a climate conference in Lima, Peru to delete provisions in a draft text that would have paved the way for other countries and non-governmental organizations to submit questions about its carbon-reduction plans, according to environmental groups that are official observers to the talks. The carbon pledges are to be included in a global deal that would be sealed next year and start from 2020.
U.S. lead climate envoy Todd Stern this week told reporters in Washington that all national pledges should be subject to scrutiny by other countries, saying “the sunshine is intended to prod countries to be as ambitious as possible” in limiting carbon emissions. The U.S. and China last month jointly announced efforts they plan to make under a new climate deal that nations seek to reach next year.
“The spirit of constructive cooperation of the U.S.-China agreement seems to have come to a full stop,” Liz Gallagher, senior adviser to the policy analyst E3G said today in an interview in Lima, where two weeks of United Nations climate talks began on Monday. Chinese negotiator Su Wei didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment.
“This is exactly the kind of risk that we face when hard lines are taken by parties,” Tasneem Essop, a spokeswoman on climate policy for the environmental group WWF International told reporters in Lima. “It’s early days, we know that it is typical of negotiations so we do hope that parties will soften their lines.”
Essop said her remarks referred to all nations, and she also criticized what she called a “slash-and-burn” exercise by the U.S., European Union, Australia, Canada and New Zealand to remove any reference to a review of the commitments they’ve made to cut emissions before 2020." via Climate Depot
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Added: In 2008, China emitted 23.5% of global CO2. Australia only 1.34%.
"List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions," green.wikia.com
"The data presented...corresponds to emissions in 2008. The data was collected by the United States Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) for the United Nations."...
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Added: Culture of corruption deeply embedded in China: China coal official had $33 million in cash stashed in one of his apartments:
"Investigators
have found more than 200 million yuan (HK$252 million) [$33 million US] in local and
foreign currency at the home of an energy official – a record haul of
corrupt cash since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China,
prosecutors said on Friday.
It confirms media reports from earlier this year that Wei Pengyuan, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) coal department, had been put under investigation amid the sweeping crackdown on
It confirms media reports from earlier this year that Wei Pengyuan, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) coal department, had been put under investigation amid the sweeping crackdown on
corruption in the country’s energy sector.
Wei was found to have bought several apartments and used one of them to store the huge pile of cash, according to media reports. Investigators had to use16 cash-counting machines to record the haul, and four of the machines broke down under the excessive workload, Caixin, a mainland financial magazine, reported.
“It marks the largest amount of money in cash we have seized from a corrupt official during a single operation since 1949”, said Xu Jinhui, an official from the Supreme People’s Procuratorate who oversees the handing of graft cases....
Wei was one of 11 officials facing trial on bribery charges laid down by the NDRC, the powerful economic policy planning agency, Xu said. Six of the corrupt officials had accepted more 60 million yuan in bribes each.
Other sacked officials from the commission include its former deputy chief Liu Tienan, who stood trial for having allegedly taken 36 million yuan in bribes.
“They are in charge of both policy making and the approval of development projects. In other words,
they decide how much profit an enterprise can make,” Xu said.
As the price of coal surges, the NDRC’s coal department that issues licences for mines
becomes a high-risk area for corruption
.
The top procuratorate had played a more active role in the country’s anti-corruption drive this year, Xu added. It has charged 35,633 officials with bribery in the first nine months this year, a 5.6 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. Eight in 10 cases involve bribes of more than 50,000 yuan or embezzlement of over 100,000 yuan.
The procuratorate has also joined the hunt for corrupt officials who have fled abroad, which has seen 502 of them tracked down between January and September."
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10/31/14, "China corruption: Record cash find in official's home," BBC
"Anti-corruption
investigators in China have confirmed the reported seizure of the
equivalent of $33m in cash at an official's home in May - the biggest
such haul to date.
More than 200m yuan (£20m) [$33 million US] were found and four out of 16 counting machines broke whilst measuring the notes, a prosecutor said.
Senior energy official Wei Pengyuan is under investigation for corruption. President Xi Jinping has promised to tackle corruption in China.
The massive haul, first reported in the Chinese press in May, was confirmed at a news conference by top anti-bribery prosecutor Xu Jinhui.
Mr Wei, who is the deputy chief of the National Energy Administration's coal department, was put under investigation in May for allegedly accepting bribes following the discovery of the hidden cash.
China has sentenced more than 13,000 officials found guilty of corruption and bribery in the first nine months of 2014 alone.
President Xi warned that his campaign against corruption would target
both "tigers" and "flies", indicating that no-one, even senior party
members, was exempt from the crackdown.Since he came to power, some of China's biggest political heavyweights, including the vice-chairman of China's parliament and the former security chief have been targeted by the anti-corruption campaign.
Experts have even suggested that the proportionately high number of suicides among party officials is down to the pressure from the battle against corruption."
Image above from BBC
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