Greenhouse gasses other than CO2 should be tracked

The decisions by several Chinese local governments to  include gasses other than carbon dioxide in the emissions reduction targets have offered valuable lessons on reaching targets earlier than the established national deadline, said Li Lailai, the China country director for the World Resources Institute (WRI), a Washington-based non-governmental global resource research organization. The WRI released its research paper on China’s efforts to reduce emissions of non-carbon greenhouse gasses on Aug. 1 in Beijing. Reducing the impact of non-carbon gasses is a crucial facet of the fight against global climate change, she said. China has reduced the emission of certain refrigerants, the potential emission reduction of which in the future would equal reducing 200 to 300 million tons of carbon dioxide, said Hu Jianxin, a professor from the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Peking University.