China Issues White Paper on Science and Technology to Address Climate Change

摘要

Future historians of the 21st century may one day look back at 2007 and identify it as a critical year in the understanding of and response to anthropogenic climate change. In April, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fourth annual report, which concluded that there is a 90% probability that human activity since 1750 has warmed the Earth. In May, the U.S. Administration appeared to shift its position on climate change, and called for international goals on reducing carbon emissions. And in October, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the IPCC and former U.S. Vice President A1 Gore for their work on understanding and communicating human-induced changes to climate. Yet despite these significant events, any long-term solution to climate problems depends in part on the actions of developing nations, and especially on China, because of its increasing role as an emitter of greenhouse gases.