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UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 (OneWorld) - Calls for global cooperation in tackling climate change are on the rise as a new study identifies China as the world's number one emitter of greenhouse gases.

Environmental groups are warning that soaring emissions in China could have a disastrous impact on the world's fledgling efforts to tackle climate change, particularly if Western nations parlay the news on China into an excuse for their own inaction.

"The growing emissions in China only serve to emphasize the importance of international action on climate change," said Peter Hardstaff of the World Development Movement (WDM), an anti-poverty group based in Britain.

On Wednesday, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released a new study concluding that last year China produced some 6,200 million tons of carbon dioxide, compared with 5,800 million tons in the United States, the country that had previously been the world's top climate polluter.

Chinese authorities have not commented on the study's finding as yet, but in recent public statements they have begun to acknowledge the threat of global warming and promised action.

Earlier this month, Beijing announced a national plan to tackle climate change, expressing its intention to reduce energy use by one fifth and increase the amount of renewable energy used in China by 2010.

Though pleased with China's decision to shift its energy policy away from fossil fuels, critics say they are not convinced that the government in Beijing will follow through with practical measures to implement the national plan on climate change.

"China has to decouple its economic development from the consumption of polluting fossil fuels," said Ailun Yang, Greenpeace International's energy campaigner in China. "The Chinese government needs to raise [its] development ambitions for renewable energies."

In explaining their position on climate change, Chinese officials have repeatedly said they would not take any actions on climate change at the expense of economic development, an argument that many environmentalists see as an excuse for inaction.

But Chinese officials defend their policy by arguing that the country needs to reconcile environmental protection with the need for economic development.

"China is a developing country. Although we do not have the obligation to cut emissions, it does not mean we do not want to shoulder our share of responsibilities," Ma Kai, chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said in a recent statement.

China currently depends on coal to meet 69 percent of its energy needs, fully 42 percent higher than the world's average, according to Greenpeace. Researchers note that heavy reliance on fossil fuels could lead to serious impacts from climate change, such as typhoons, desertification, and the melting of glaciers.

Like the rest of the developing world, China holds the industrialized West largely responsible for the effects of global warming because, over the past century, Western countries emitted the vast majority of greenhouse gases worldwide. Despite growth in China's carbon emissions, however, the United States still remains the world's number one per capita carbon polluter. On average, people in China are responsible for 3.5 tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year. By comparison, Britons emit nearly 10 tons per person, while North Americans are responsible for 20 tons per person.

According to Greenpeace, the Group of Eight most industrialized nations (G8) are responsible for over 80 percent of the climate change now being experienced worldwide, and they continue to be responsible for over 40 percent of all global emissions.

While critics acknowledge China's criticism of the West, they say there should be no excuses for any country's inaction.

"If we are to protect the global climate, every help must be given to assist China," said John Sauven, who leads Greenpeace in Britain. "They put in the right supportive policy. We have the technology. The two must be put together."

Recent developments, however, indicate that rich countries, though possessing clean energy technologies, are still far from willing to commit to meaningful actions on climate change. At their recent summit, the G8 leaders, once again, failed to set specific targets on cuts in carbon emissions.

WDM's Hardstaff, who joins the Chinese in arguing that the West should take greater responsibility on the matter, thinks there will be no progress in reducing the dangers of global warming as long as richer nations remain slow in their response.

"The Chinese and other developing countries rightly see rich countries as the principal historical cause of the problem," he said. "There is little chance they will agree to curb their own emissions if we do not first show it can be done."

Greenpeace's Sauven agrees.

"We have to examine our consumption binge of cheap Chinese products made in factories dependent on very polluting forms of energy," he said. "This policy has been a climate disaster. It's the downside of globalization."

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