The focus on China intensified late last year, when new data from the International Energy Agency and other research organizations revealed that China had overtaken the US as the largest source of greenhouse gases – and, more ominously, that its emissions are growing at a rate that exceeds all wealthy nations’ capacity to decrease theirs. Even if China met its own targets for energy conservation, its emissions would increase by about 2.3 billion metric tons over the next five years – far larger than the 1.7 billion tons in cutbacks imposed by the Kyoto Protocol on the 37 developed “Annex 1” countries, including the US.
去年底以来人们对中国更加关注。当时，国际原子能机构和其他研究机构的新数据表明中国已经超越美国成为温室气体的最大排放国家。而且更为不详的是，中国的排放增长远远超过所有富有国家降低排放的能力。即使中国实现其自身节能的目标，其排放在未来五年中还是将会增长大约23亿吨。这一数字要远远大于京都议定书规定包括美国在内的37个“附件一”发达国家的17亿吨的减排量。