Senior Chinese Negotiator Says He Has "Open Mind" As To Whether Warming Natural Or Man-Made

China's most senior negotiator on climate change said today he was keeping an open mind on whether global warming was man-made or the result of natural cycles. Xie Zhenhua said there was no doubt that warming was taking place, but more and better scientific research was needed to establish the causes.

EDIT

Responding to a question about the controversy over the melting of Himalayan glaciers and to fresh doubts cast on the link between global warming and extreme weather events, Xie said there were still "disputes" in the scientific community over the causes.

"Now the mainstream view is according to the review reports by the IPCC," he said. "There is one starkly different view, that the climate change or climate warming issues is caused by the cyclical element of nature itself. I think we need to adopt an open attitude to the scientific research, that we need to have as inclusive as possible all kinds of views concerning this aspect, because we want our views to be more scientific and to be more consistent."

Asked later to clarify his remarks, he said: "It is already a solid fact that the climate is already warming. The scientists have already shown that the global climate is warming. Due to the climate change influences, the countries that have been actively impacted most are those developing countries, in particular those small island countries. And the major reason of this climate change issue is the unconstrained emissions produced by developed countries in the process of their industrialisation. That is the mainstream view and we need to make responses concerning these views. There are some uncertain views but our attitude is open, that we need to have more studies. But this shall not impede our efforts in combating the climate change."

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/24/china-climate-change-adviser