Making moves the Bush Administration still refuses to dance, China is placing the final touches on a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions "by 10% over the next five years."

This is a promising development; especially considering that China will account for about 41% of all carbon credits issued by the year 2012. Still, the government refuses to accept quantitative emissions reduction targets, calling such goals "hard and unrealistic". They are, however, not holding back on honesty when it comes to making admissions about their contributions to global pollution. From the article,

Because we're a coal dominant country, we have to take responsibility for lowering greenhouse emissions," said Zhang. He added: "China plans to reduce its energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20% by 2010."

China's rapid growth will be a significant determinant in seeing some of these goals to fruition. Many analysts believe cutting energy consumption within such a short period of time is simply impossible for a country with run-away economic momentum. The International Energy Agency still expects China to overtake the U.S. in emissions by 2009; a race that nobody should be proud to win.

China's open admission of its environmental challenges is an interesting policy compared to the U.S. "wait and let technology save us" type-rhetoric. The question is, can a country with such massive growth do anything to curb energy consumption or resource depletion? Are they simply headed for a steep cliff at the top of a mountain?

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