I keep coughing after a brief visit to a sizable developing nation - not because of a possible A(H1N1) infection but the continuous exposure to strong smell of fuel and pollutants on roads of the country, where 20-year-old obsolete cars rattled everywhere.

Coincidentally, a colleague of mine talked to me about one mountainous country he lately toured, saying that air pollution there was roughly 10 times, though he failed to supply scientific data, of that in Beijing.

While many Beijing residents, including foreign expatriates, are still not satisfied with air quality in the city, the government of the Chinese capital is implementing one of the world's harshest vehicle emissions rules, particularly after 2008 when Beijing hosted a summer Olympics. The improvement is noticeable.

After three decades' rapid economic growth, China became the world's third largest economy as well as one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

As almost all industrialized countries did in their early stages of development, China used to follow the growth path of ineffective energy consumption and rampant encroachment of natural resources.

Now China is eager to create a greener economy, for not only its own people, but also the whole planet. The Chinese president pledged a marginal cut of GHGs emissions by 2020, even though no existing international conventions or regimes require China, as one developing nation, to make such a promise.

If we could only turn back time to the first decades of the global industrialization, China would have been ranked among the most self-disciplined students in the class due to the introspection of coordinating its own economic development with the needs for protecting nature. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was signed and approved by more than 192 countries in the world, specifies that industrialized countries contributed to the biggest chunk of human emissions in history.

If there is any cap for each country in accordance with its historical performance, some scientists argue, all UNFCCC-annexed industrialized economies have already used up their respective portions of GHG emissions. Nonetheless, few UNFCCC-annexed developed countries are able to offer any meaningful emission cut plans close to their promises signed a dozen years ago into the Kyoto Protocol, which was under the UNFCCC regime. A lot of people in the wealthiest countries continue their proud lifestyle of living in big houses, driving gas-guzzling SUVs, and using highly-powered washing machines and dryers. Short of mentioning the UNFCCC principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" for sharing burdens of emissions cut, many industrialized nations are now shunning their responsibilities and asking developing members of the international community to make overdue contributions.

How can those industrialized countries, which owe huge carbon debts to the world, occupy the moral beacon of achieving a greener and better world?

An unspoken intention is looming behind the moral advocacy in international climate talks. Powers which set up game rules would often refresh such rules to keep their competitiveness, in financial interests, social benefits and, consequently, national strength - from the Bretton Woods system which established the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to the consolidation of the World Trade Organization, and to the cap-and-trade mechanism these days and possibly global carbon exchange markets in the future. It's quite a cutting-edge gizmo to let carbon be a priced commodity, particularly after Wall Street met an unavoidable failure in securitizing everything, company stocks, life insurances and even bad debts. Just commercializing everything - climate, this time. Not at all cynical of serious concern of climate change and global warming, Chinese should be aware of intentional control of wealth distribution under the pretext of lofty ideas.

While enjoying the better-off after diligent and entrepreneurial work, the Chinese people still abide by the appeal of the ancient sage Lao Tzu, stay in harmony with the universe.

The author is a writer with Xinhua News Agency.

(China Daily 11/26/2009 page8)