China not to blame for rising greenhouse gas emissions: UK official

A top climate change official from the UK Foreign Office said that China is building about two new power plants every week, but also said that there was no point in blaming the country for rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

John Ashton told the BBC that rich nations had to set an example of low-carbon development, even as reports suggest that China may have become the world's biggest polluter, earlier than expected.

According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China's CO2 emissions had risen by 9 percent last year, compared to only 1.4 percent in the US.

Ashton said that the challenge lies with convincing China that it didn't have to make a choice between economic prosperity and protecting the climate. He also said that developing countries have put most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere without regard for how it affected the climate and should bear the brunt of responsibility for the situation.

Ashton said that the release of China's first climate strategy was an effort to "get to grips with their emissions and use energy efficiently," BBC quoted him as saying.

He also pointed out that Western demand for Chinese made goods is fueling China's emissions growth, which he noted were, on a per person basis, still lower than those of developed countries.

The average American is believed to pollute five or six times more than the average Chinese, the BBC report said.

Greenpeace UK director John Sauven said that responsibility for China's soaring emissions lie not just in Beijing, but also in Washington, Belgium and Tokyo. He pointed out that all Western nations have done is export a big chunk of their carbon footprint to China. He said that manufacturers made the move to China without any conditions apart from the price of labor.

That has kept the prices of products low, but sent greenhouse gas emissions soaring, he said. Sauven also said that clean energy technology should be exported to China to increase low-carbon and renewable energy take-up so that imported products would have a smaller carbon footprint.