The UN General Assembly is meeting in New York at the moment, and on the first day, Chinese President Hu Jintao committed to reducing his country's emissions intensity:
"We will endeavor to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by a notable margin by 2020 from the 2005 level," Hu told a special summit on climate change.There doesn't sound like much, and intensity targets are a false goal - but coming from a country which has until recently rejected any suggestion of curbing its emissions growth, its a definite step in the right direction. While the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities gives a lot of leeway for developing countries, eventually they too will have to commit to binding caps on emissions - and an intensity target is a good interim measure to get them there.
