China calls for technology sharing mechanism for anti-global warming efforts

CHIBA—The world does not lack innovative environmental technologies which help cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but is short of an effective mechanism supporting distribution and common sharing of such beneficial technologies, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China National Development and Reform Commission, reiterated here on Saturday at an international meeting.
Developing countries are in need of and want to use new technologies in their GHG reduction efforts, but do not have enough capital to purchase latest technologies for their contribution to the anti-global warming campaign, Xie said in his speech at the fourth ministerial meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development which is being held in Chiba city, east of Tokyo.
China supports the proposal of establishing the Multilateral Technology Access Fund which could bring more climate-friendly technologies into the box of “public goods,” he said.
“Only by doing so, could the cost of technology transfer be cut down so that developing countries could afford and apply advanced technologies,” Xie said. “Large-scale infrastructure construction is underway in developing countries during their industrialization process. Heavy GHG emissions due to backward technology may persist for quite a long time if they were not within access to advanced environmental technology,” Xie underlined the necessity of building a related mechanism as early as possible.
Xie welcomed developed nations’ willingness to provide capital to facilitate developing nations’ participation in environment-related global cooperation, and called on developed nations to allocate at least 0.5 percent of their respective annual GDP to help distributing key technologies beyond commercial interests.
The meeting, which is a forum to talk about a post-Kyoto framework for better tackling with global climate change, is the first in a series of ministerial meetings in the run-up to the Group of Eight summit slated for July in northern Japan’s Hokkaido Prefecture. Leaders from the European Union (EU) member states opened a two-day summit here on Thursday to tackle economic cooling and global warming.
The spring summit is usually dominated by economic issues. This time, the leaders will pay particular attention to the launch of the second cycle of the renewed Lisbon Strategy, a flagship reform project of the 27-nation bloc aimed at promoting economic growth and jobs.

—Xinhua