China update

China update

22nd June 2007

Last week, an analysis by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency concluded that China had outstripped the US as the globe’s biggest contributor to CO2 emissions (with carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacture comprising nearly 10% of the total.)

The report doesn't square with other studies which place the US as the global number one source of global greenhouse gas emissions. Nor did it calculate such responsibility on a per capita basis, which would still rate US consumers and industry as the world’s chief “carbon culprits.”

In a retort to the Dutch report, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson maintained that those who buy cheap Chinese goods, or locate their factories in China with a view to exporting such products, should also be held to blame for the country’s increased contribution to global warming.

Our summary of what Chinese metals and mining companies are up to abroad includes new, or advancing, projects in Kenya, Australia, Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea and Canada.

Meanwhile Australia’s Sino Gold announces new ventures in China itself; while executives in the Robert Friedland/Ivanhoe camp have secured a stake in the heart of one of the country’s biggest gold mines.