Second, the importers are actually the de facto emitter of carbon, as exporters consume domestic resources and energies to satisfy the needs of their overseas customers. Therefore, the importers should pay for the carbon emissions of their exporting countries. A large amount of made-in-China products are sold to developed countries. They enjoy the cheap and fairly good Chinese products, consume the Chinese resources, pollute the Chinese environment, and now, they are charging a so-called carbon tariff on Chinese products. It is totally groundless and unreasonable. If there is any, it should be China charging developed countries for the carbon emission and pollution the exporting goods have caused to its environment.

Third, when counting carbon emissions, the accrued amount of such emissions over the course of industrial history should be taken into account, since it is unfair to merely measure the current emissions. Chinese carbon emissions have gathered mostly since 1978 when China adopted the reform and opening-up policy. But developed countries have been emitting greenhouse gases for more than 100 years since the industrialization era in the 19th century. Comparatively speaking, the aggregated carbon emissions of China fall far less than that of developed countries. As a developing country, economic development is the top priority, thus China cannot share the same responsibility as that of developed countries.

Fourth, when negotiating carbon emissions, the function of non-governmental organizations (NGO) must be brought into full play. China has made enormous efforts in coping with climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the international community has no idea of what China has accomplished so far.

Fifth, developed countries should transfer climate and environmentally friendly technologies to developing countries for free. The Kyoto Protocol (an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system") has stated developed countries should transfer emission reduction technologies to developing countries, for instance, new energy development technology and carbon-capture technology. However, developed countries have done little and most of the time deliberately avoided the topic, passing the buck to their domestic companies' reluctance in participation. In international economic cooperation on low-carbon products, developed countries should not exploit developing countries' weakness for stupendous profits by charging overly high prices on clean technology transfers or transactions.

Domestic alarm

Domestically, government officials, economists and scholars have all realized the importance of greenhouse gas emission reduction. The Western developed countries might take advantage of carbon emission reductions, but for its own part, China should act positively to reduce greenhouse gas emission and make due contributions to the undertaking of environmental protection.

Among the 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package adopted by the Chinese Government last November, approximately 580 billion yuan ($85 billion) is invested in projects designed to handle climate change.

China has been sparing no effort in cutting greenhouse gas emissions through adjusting economic structure, developing a cyclic economy, saving energy, raising energy efficiency, filtering out-dated production capacity, developing renewable energy, and optimizing energy structure.

In spite of the efforts made, some deep-rooted problems are still waiting to be resolved.

In the process of urbanization and industrialization, many cities have blindly expanded production without realizing the potential damage they might exert on the environment.

Some local governments, in an attempt to attract foreign investment, bring a lot of low-end manufacturing businesses that were dumped by developed countries into China. Many of them are high energy consumption, high carbon emission and high pollution projects.

Against the backdrop of concerted international efforts to eliminate high carbon emission projects, China might pay a lot in the future to phase out the high-carbon emission, high-polluted foreign industrial projects.

In urban planning, local officials attempted to build "international metropolis," cutting down trees, narrowing bicycle paths, expanding motorways, and building skyscrapers. Those measures exert a gradual and imperceptible influence on the citizens, many of whom worship all things foreign, such as their pursuit for high-energy consumption vehicles.

Some cities, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Wuxi, are striving to catch up with the international trend to build low-carbon cities, but they lack solid knowledge of what "low-carbon city" refers to and require updated information on the topic.