BEIJING: Following the release of an authoritative United Nations report that unequivocally links human activities with climate change, the rulers of the world’s most populous country are faced with the quandary of balancing prosperity against pollution.

China’s economy has been growing at a double-digit rate for the last 20 years and is now the second-largest emitter of energy-related carbon dioxide after the United States. The increased atmospheric concentration of carbon emissions that trap heat and contribute to global warming has now been confirmed with near certainty to be caused by human activity and the use of fossil fuels.

The world has just ten years to reverse surging carbon emissions or risk runaway climate change that could make many parts of the planet uninhabitable. This stark warning came in a new report by the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in Paris last week. Yet, even before scientists could pinpoint human activities as the main culprit behind global warming, politicians at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were talking about the need for major emerging economies like China and India to urgently tackle their growing emissions.

With China representing one-sixth of the world’s population and with an economy growing at ten percent a year, officials have been predicting an environmental disaster if the country is allowed to discharge as much pollution as Western countries did during their industrialisation.

China relies on coal for more than 70 per cent of its energy needs, spewing out tons of pollutants. The increasing energy demands of its voracious economy have also led to the proliferation of coal-fired plants, many of them built and operated without governmental approval.

While a signatory to the UN Kyoto protocol mandating the reduction of greenhouse gases, China, as a developing country, is under no obligation to cut emissions during the pact’s first phase till 2012.

The economic and social consequences of a prolonged, severe drought in China are worrying in the light of new research published last month in the journal ‘Nature’. It shows that intense climate change might have been the reason for the collapse of one of China’s most illustrious dynasties, the Tang (618-907).

—Dawn/The IPS News Service