"OK, OK," says China. "Forget that air pollution business you were just writing about. We're on board with that greenhouse gas thing you all keep talking about after all!"

Yep, that monster economy is actually taking on the recommendations of that Kyoto Protocol and, just maybe, starting to do something to stop boiling the planet.

As New Scientist reports:

The Chinese government is preparing to adopt its first programme to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming. Although some reports suggest the plan will not include quantitative reduction targets, a senior official said on Tuesday that the country would seek to reduce carbon dioxide emissions "by 10% over the next five years".

"Because we're a coal dominant country, we have to take responsibility for lowering greenhouse emissions," said Zhang
[Guobao, vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission], an unusual admission for a Chinese official. He added: "China plans to reduce its energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20% by 2010."

In an example of China's difficulties in meeting the environmental targets it sets itself, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) announced on 9 February that, far from reaching its target of reducing sulphur dioxide emissions by 2.0% in 2006, emissions had in fact risen by 1.8% on 2005 levels.

Despite this, a UN official in China recently said he doubted that nation would become the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide by 2009. In November 2006, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that China could overtake the US in this respect by 2009.

This is really a bit of a follow-up to their earlier (not very typical) admission that pollution is a problem:

"Compared with its social and economic modernisation, China's ecological modernisation lags far behind," said He Chuanqi, head of the research group that put together the report, according to the official China Daily newspaper.