RE:Rex Murphy: The Liberals are out to lunch on high gas pricesNor sure what the right word is but "curiously", while China may not be signing on the Western agreements regarding climate change, they are in fact doing more than the West but in a balanced way.
Part of their ability to do so is due to that fact they have a dictatorship form of Government and instead of zealots they have pragmatic leaders who are prepared to take their time and get but right.
So why do I say "balanced"?
On the one hand they are securing future supplies of oil and gas primarily from Russia so they will have enough supply during the transition. While this is going on they are going to build a significant number of nuclear power generating plants (the West?....you guessed it...none). They are also significantly expanding their renewable energy sources and in fact most of the world's supply of solar panels are made in China.
On top of all this, they have banned gas engines in things like motorcycles in a number of cities such as Shanghai.
The end result IMO is that China will be able to move to a lower carbon intensive society without running into the disruptions that the West will face based on the push by the zealots.
The difference between the West and China is that in the West, the zealots seems to think all you need to do is flick a switch and everything will work out, whereas in China they know the transition will take time and all members of the orchestra need to playing the same tune.