China 'must spend more to fight climate change'

In order to contribute fairly to the fight against climate change, a new report has stated that China needs to increase spending on emission-reducing technologies by two trillion yuan (£191 billion).

Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics has released a report that suggests spending on reducing air pollution in the country must be increased in order to ensure that China is doing all it can to curb the onset of climate change.

Recently China has begun to take steps to cut down on the high level of emissions it produces each year. With cities often being shrouded in heavy smog and the images of the conditions playing out on the world's stage. The central government has made a number of changes in an attempt to lower emissions. 

Much of the air pollution is caused by coal-fired power plants, which have fueled China's fast economic expansion and have also resulted in it becoming the world's number one producer of greenhouse gases.

The new report suggests that China must do more to own up to its share of the earth's carbon emissions and invest more money into policies and technologies that can help to reduce the production of greenhouse gases. The report has urged the government to fund investments through money raised from carbon markets.

China has long maintained through its official policy that it is the responsibility of developed nations to increase the fight against emissions and climate change, a contrasting view to the findings of the report. 

The country has already said that it will be spending 520 billion yuan in an attempt to stop global temperatures from increasing past two degrees Celsius, according to co-author of the report Chen Bo but it has called for a larger investment.

If the new findings are correct, the amount pledged by the Chinese government is only around a fifth of what is needed if China is to work towards reducing it's share of climate change-causing greenhouse gases. The researchers state that the government should be responsible for producing the extra funds needed for the country to take on a proportionate amount of emissions.

The report has been submitted to the State Council for consideration.