Real costs of stopping climate change still unclear

• Source: Global Times
• [00:08 November 17 2009]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Paul Morris

There's less than a month to go until nearly 100 nations assemble in Copenhagen to finalize what the world will do to try to slow down climate change.

Discussions have been going on for a while, and there remain doubts that anything significant will come out of Copenhagen.

Yet the conference will hopefully conclude with certain binding commitments, identifying each individual nation's procedures and financial responsibilities for implementation as soon as the Kyoto Protocol comes to an end.

Kyoto will come to an end in 2012. If nothing is established to take its place, the potential consequences are unnerving.

China's contribution to the talks is arguably the most important of any participant.

"China is more susceptible to climate change problems than many other countries," said Tristan Edmondson, a partner at Mint Research, a cleantech consultancy based in Beijing.