China and the European Union (EU) announced on Thursday the
launch of a joint project to boost the clean development mechanism
(CDM) in China.
According to the agreement, the EU will pour 2.8 million euros
into the EU-China CDM Facilitation Project, which aims to promote
sustainable development in China by shaping the regulatory and
policy regimes affecting the application of the CDM in China.
The project targets EU and China joint climate change
objectives, said Nicholas Costello, first counselor of the
Delegation of the European Commission to China and Mongolia, when
addressing the project launch ceremony.
"The project will facilitate the implementation of the CDM, make
it easier to exchange information on CDM projects and encourage EU
companies to engage in CDM projects in China and hence to tackle
climate change on a global scale," Costello said.
The EU-China Facilitation Project, which will run until 2010,
will support China's CDM through research, capacity development,
technical exchange, and training activities.
Technical cooperation will be established with Chinese
government agencies, standards and certification companies, and
wider stakeholder groups so that knowledge of CDM issues can be
widely disseminated, Costello added.
The promotion of CDM is a specific objective of the EU-China
Climate Change Partnership that was established in 2005.
The CDM was set up under the Kyoto protocol to the 1992 United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to which China and
the EU are parties.
CDM allows developed countries to achieve part of their emission
reduction commitments by investing in emission-saving projects in
developing countries and counting the reductions achieved toward
their own commitments to control greenhouse gas
emissions.?
(Xinhua News Agency June 29, 2007)