Chapter 1165: Turning Passive Into Active

These suggestions made by Zheng Guogang are not the first time that China has proposed them.

As early as the signing of the Kyoto Protocol, similar statements had been made many times.

But as a complete set of emission reduction plans, it was the first time that China systematically put them on the table for discussion.

And this is not in line with China's low-key style over the past decade.

Therefore, many members of the delegations of other countries did not even react in the first time.

Most of them were still immersed in the passionate battle between China and the United States.

But this situation did not last too long.

Soon, someone figured out something wrong -

Emission limits are determined according to population?

Or was it proposed by China?

Not only that, but also the historical emission data accumulated since the Industrial Revolution must be removed first?

Well, you have 1.3 billion people, and industrialization has only happened in the last 50 years, so of course you are happy.

An additional 10% emission reduction sounds better than singing, but when it comes down to it, it still stands out as far ahead.

Then how can other countries live?

The United States has a population of more than 300 million, so the problem is secondary.

For those European countries that industrialized early and have a small population now, such as the three low-lying countries and the Nordic countries, if calculated in this way, wouldn’t the emission limit become negative?

You know, although the part about emission reduction in the Kyoto Protocol is not mandatory, it has set a very critical content, which is the carbon emission rights trading system.

And the next stage of the plan of various countries, of course mainly developed countries, is to combine carbon emission limits with carbon trading markets.

In this way, you only need to transfer low-end industries with relatively large emissions to developing countries, and then earn back the money spent through carbon emission rights trading, and you can lock the development ceiling of these third world countries forever.

But now that China has messed it up...

How can it be played?

Let alone selling carbon emission rights to others, I am afraid that the whole world will have to find several countries with huge population bases but not too high industrial output, such as India and Bangladesh, to buy carbon emission rights.

But if you want to refute the Chinese...

On the one hand, the other party's statement is well-founded, and they have taken the initiative to make a 10% concession. In addition, with the power of defeating the US representative just now, no one is willing to take the lead.

On the other hand, although everyone is dirty in private, at least they still maintain a decent personality at the beginning of the 21st century.

Protecting developing countries is almost as politically correct as protecting the environment.

In the past, developed countries generally bribed representatives of several small countries to do this kind of work, and they were just the remote controllers behind the scenes.

Until the result is almost torn out, they will end up as a dispute terminator.

They said "I will say a few fair words", but they didn't say anything fair.

But this time, most countries only guessed that China would confront the United States, but no one expected that the former would take this opportunity to put forward such a constructive opinion...

Naturally, they were not prepared.

So, the scene froze in place for a while.

The representatives looked at each other, and finally almost unanimously turned their eyes to the French and German representatives present.

There is no doubt that according to the calculation method proposed by Huaxia just now, the most disadvantaged must be the developed small European countries.

In the discussion of climate issues after entering the 21st century, the EU was taken into consideration as a whole.

But as we all know, typical EU officials have the organizational ability of Italians, the flexibility of Germans, the humility of French, the imagination of Belgians, the generosity of Dutch and the wisdom of Irish.

In other words, nothing can be done.

So in 2004, some European countries will still send representatives to the meeting separately.

For example, Germany and France, which are the engines of Europe.

And considering that Huaxia has been very close to Europe in recent years, it will not make the atmosphere too tense if they put forward opinions.

However, the German and French delegations directly carried forward the ostrich spirit and pretended that nothing had happened.

Because they didn't want to refute it.

As mentioned earlier, the EU is a whole when calculating carbon emission rights and conducting carbon trading internationally.

But if we break it down, we still need to set a limit for each country internally.

Therefore, Germany and France can use the proposal put forward by China as a bargaining chip to strengthen their voice within the EU framework.

As for the issue of carbon emissions...

First of all, no one thinks that China's proposal can be passed as it is.

Although China seems to have all the advantages now, the real mandatory emission treaty will not be formally negotiated until around 2007.

Finally, there must be a voting process.

At that time, even if it is not good-looking, the vested interest countries will not approve such an outrageous document.

There will always be some compromise.

Secondly, even if it is really passed, the EU can expand the population by absorbing a number of Central and Eastern European countries, and then transfer the carbon emission quotas of these countries to Western Europe through the accession agreement.

There is really no rush.

Just when the host couldn't stand it anymore and was about to force the end of China's speech, which had been overtime, the Russian Federation delegation, which had not been noticed, spoke unexpectedly.

"We believe that although the suggestions put forward by the Chinese representatives are very constructive, there are still several serious loopholes."

The host who had just touched the microphone sat back down in an instant.

No one thought that it was the Russians who seemed to stand with China who first raised questions.

But soon, they realized that something was wrong...

"First, some countries in the cold zone have higher costs for maintaining basic survival than tropical and subtropical countries. Therefore, this should be taken into account and these countries should be compensated according to the territorial area or annual average temperature of each country in the high-latitude region."

"Secondly, when a country produces carbon dioxide, its domestic forests and grasslands and other resources will also absorb and store carbon dioxide at the same time, but the current method of calculating carbon emissions based on satellite remote sensing cannot involve this part. Therefore, this part should be subtracted before calculating the net emissions..."

"..."

Obviously, this series of proposals is not so much about raising questions as it is about checking for deficiencies and filling gaps.

And it's even more outrageous.

You Russians have 8.2 million square kilometers of forests and 3 million square kilometers of land in the northern polar zone, which together are larger than the total land area of ​​Canada.

Do you still have any shame?

Fortunately, after the first one started, other countries also expressed their attitudes.

For example, the US representative who had been pretending to be dead just now stood up again and said that compared with land, the ocean itself and aquatic plants absorb carbon dioxide more significantly, so the territorial waters and exclusive economic zones should also be taken into consideration.

Representatives of the GCC countries believe that considering that fossil fuels are still the basis for the survival and development of the entire human race, it should be considered that countries that produce fossil fuels, especially oil and natural gas, are responsible for carbon emissions for all mankind, and need to be exempted according to fossil fuel production or export volume when calculating emission limits.

There are also some countries that really want to reach a consensus, believing that it is not reasonable to count people or area, but the total amount generated by each unit of GDP should be calculated...

In short, the entire conference hall has almost become a vegetable market.

Not many people even noticed when the Chinese representative stepped down from the stage.

Zheng Guogang, who returned to his seat, shook hands with Ding Zhongli with excitement...

After a successful counterattack, we proposed a motion on climate change, which was not in the original plan.

It was proposed by the latter before departure.

On this timeline, because many things did not happen, China was not very weak in momentum to the United States.

So, the superiors finally passed this somewhat tit-for-tat suggestion.

That's why the sudden attack just now happened.

Like all other representatives, Ding Zhongli and Zheng Guogang did not expect the proposal to be passed from the beginning.

However, being able to speak not only on behalf of themselves but also on behalf of the vast majority of third world countries in the past when they had been suppressed was a great attempt in itself.

Not to mention, China also successfully guided the direction of the entire discussion, completely turning passivity into initiative, and fought a pretty beautiful comeback.

"It really worked..."

Ding Zhong tried his best to lower his voice.

But he couldn't suppress the excitement in his tone...