O secretário-geral das Nações Unidas, Ban Ki-Moon, escreveu, em relação à China, que esta "comprometeu-se a suprir 16 por cento das suas necessidades de energia com energia de fontes renováveis em 2020 e planeia investir mais de 450 biliões de dólares em tecnologias "limpas" e de reciclagem de resíduos durante o seu atual plano quinquenal".

Pode consultar a notícia completa aqui.

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Wen Jiabao, primeiro-ministro chinês, anunciou que a China vai lançar um programa experimental para reduzir as emissões de dióxido de carbono e gases poluentes no âmbito da luta contra as alterações climáticas.

Pde ver a notícia completa aqui.

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A China poderá estar a viver a pior seca dos últimos 50 anos. A Austrália está também a viver a pior onda de calor de sempre (de que há registo humano, naturalmente). Este tipo de fenómenos extremos está a acontecer com cada vez maior frequência. A isto não será alheia a alteração climática.

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China is suffering another natural disaster -- this time, the worst drought in half a century. The land is parched and the irrigation dams have dried up. Crops and livestock are dying.

Water levels in some Chinese rivers are well below their average with 50 to 80 percent less rain than last year.
China on Thursday raised the drought-emergency-alert level from orange to red and allocated an additional $44 million dollars on top of the $13 million in emergency aid already released.

Ler mais CNN

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The Tech Transfer Trap

If the Obama administration hopes to coax China to take action on global warming — and if the administration wants to give the U.N. climate negotiations a chance of success — it will need to solve the thorny problem of technology transfer. If it does so, however, it may face a quarrel with the clean-tech industry, one of its closest allies in the business community.

In the U.N. climate talks last month in Poznan, Poland, technology transfer emerged as one of the key stumbling blocks. China demanded that the United States and Europe agree to a strategy of transferring to developing nations a wide variety of energy-saving and emissions-reducing technologies to developing nations.

Ler resto em ClimateProgress

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«The Washington Post reports the story today, “Chinese Consumers Eager to Excel at the American Pastime“:

Long known for high saving rates, China’s middle-class consumers are starting to spend like their American counterparts. Of China’s 11.4 percent growth in the gross domestic product last year, the largest segment, 4.4 percent, was in consumer spending. That sector still represents just 38 percent of China’s overall GDP, roughly half the percentage in more developed countries, but in the eyes of retailers that means more opportunity….

Meanwhile, some Chinese consumers are also adopting the biggest vice of American consumers: debt. Mesmerized by a banquet of Western-style financial products, some Chinese consumers are juggling multiple credit cards, consumer loans and installment plans to buy an ever-increasing quantity of cars, washing machines and vacations.»

ler mais... em Climate Progress

Comentário: se o modelo a seguir pelos consumidores chineses fôr o norte-americano, então o futuro reserva-se muito sombrio para todo o planeta!

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