CANBERRA—China must be persuaded to join the battle against climate change, economist Professor Ross Garnaut says.
Prof Garnaut today said the international community had agreed that the climate change mitigation process should begin with steps taken by developed countries.
But the Rudd Government's climate change adviser said that much of the growth in carbon emissions over the coming decades would come from developing countries, in particular China.
For that reason, it was crucial that China was persuaded to join developed nations in taking action.
"Even the whole of the developed world getting its act together and reducing emissions won't solve the problem," Prof Garnaut told ABC television.
Prof Garnaut, who last week handed down is highly anticipated draft report on climate change, said 80 per cent of the emissions growth over the next couple of decades would come from developing countries.
"And the biggest element of that for the next couple of decades is China," he said.
"India and Indonesia are increasingly important beyond that, but China is the big story in the period ahead."
Prof Garnaut has backed the Federal Government's 2010 launch date for an emissions trading scheme (ETS) as a means of reducing carbon pollution.
However, he says the arithmetic of solving the global problem doesn't work unless China plays a substantial role from an early date.
And he says the developed world must show leadership if it want's China to be involved in effort to arrest climate change.
"They're not going move unless it's clear the whole of the developed world is moving."
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