China to Watch Others on Climate Change Action BRUSSELS China
will watch how other countries meet their environmental
commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions in coming years
before deciding whether to sign up to its own mandatory cuts, a
minister said on Tuesday. Xie Zhenhua, Chinese environment
minister, said China would take action to cut emissions blamed
for global warming, but would wait before committing itself to
targets after 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol
environmental treaty ends. "I hope that some countries would,
according to the obligations which are provided for in the Kyoto
Protocol, implement in a substantive way their obligations and
take up their commitments," Xie told reporters in Brussels after
meeting European Union environment officials. "On the Chinese
side, the Chinese government would make its own decision after
making some assessments of the implementation by other
countries." The European Union, considered a leader in climate
change and largely credited with sec