At Climate Conference, China Defends Its Record On Environment, Emissions - Reuters

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BEIJING - China defended itself on Tuesday against charges it is not doing enough to fight climate change, as a government think-tank said global warming was shrinking glaciers and exacerbating water shortages in the parched country.

A UN conference in Nairobi is working to fix long-term rules to fight global warming beyond 2012, when the provisions of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, which calls for many industrialised nations to cut emissions to below 1990 levels, run out. "The Chinese government pays great attention to the climate change problem," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news conference. Industrialised countries should carry out their promises to address the problem, she said.

China has resisted calls for a cap even on emissions growth, arguing that most carbon dioxide currently in the atmosphere was produced by developed nations as they industrialised, and they have no right to deny the same economic growth to others.

But a government think-tank said glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, which account for nearly half of China's total glacier coverage, were shrinking at a rate of 7 percent a year, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The report echoed a warning by the UN Development Programme, which said China's glaciers could disappear by 2100.

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http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38988/story.htm