Bathurst Community Climate Action Network

Wasn't Tuesday night a scorcher! For me it came at the end of a hot 
but pleasant afternoon down beside the Macquarie River helping to 
staff the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network stall. While we 
were there to answer questions from the general public, it was also 
good for BCCAN members to chat amongst ourselves about the state of 
the world.

One member, BCCAN Treasurer Greg Walker, had just returned from a 
brief trip to Changchun, a city of seven million people in northern 
China. Greg found no sign of scepticism about climate change in that 
country. Instead, the talk was all about what can be done to meet the 
challenge.

But the Chinese fear that the developed world will try to take 
advantage of the developing world. They argue that carbon emissions 
should be measured on a per capita basis, rather than a per-country 
basis. They also point out that the developed world should be 
responsible for consumption as well as production of manufactured 
goods. They argue that Western consumers have shifted production of 
"dirty" manufactured goods to the developing world and that global 
accounting for emissions must take account of this.

"China refuses to accept the West’s dictate that China must reduce 
its overall carbon emission level," says Greg. "To do so would 
condemn tens of millions to remain in poverty or impose enormous cost 
on China to convert rapidly to renewable energy sources."

At the same time, China has made enormous investment in renewable 
energy projects, with more wind farms in that country than in the US. 
There are new regulations to force carbon efficiency gains in housing 
and production and reforms in the coal industry to close low grade 
dirty coal mines.

But Greg's overwhelming impression was of the pace of building and 
construction and the inevitable increase in total emissions. "China 
is the world’s greatest producer of automobiles, the greatest 
consumer of concrete and I understand is even more dependent on coal 
fired power than is Australia!"

More on Greg's trip to China can be found in the latest newsletter on 
the BCCAN website.
,,,
Congratulations to Conservation Volunteers Australia's John Fry, who 
won this year's Jo Ross memorial award for his lifelong efforts to 
improve the local environment.