The post-mortem of the Copenhagen climate negotiations proved to be an interesting analysis. One of the most interesting articles contained in the Guardian concerned China, and whether they were striving to meet the requirements demanded by the science or if they were simply being a global inconvenience to progress and repeatedly blocking the negotiations. So on which side should the penny finally drop?

Clearly China is stuck. One the one hand it is a country that can see the effects of climate change and fully understands the consequences. On the other, it is widely perceived to be a hurdle in the United Nations negotiations.

However, it appears as if China still wants room for manoeuvre – the freedom to deliver prosperity to its citizens whilst not confining itself to the boundaries of an international treaty, an international treaty which is still profoundly bias against developing nations. Yes China did block the discussions in Copenhagen, but they also spend more to tackle climate change then many other developed countries and are considering hosting the climate negotiations later this year, for which many countries are unwilling to foot the bill.

Yes we can quite easily make China the scapegoat, but the fact of the matter is that Saudi Arabia, Germany, Poland and America are just as big a problem to the negotiations amongst some others.

So when these developed countries actually accept that these developing countries need economic growth to reduce poverty,  improve living standards then we may potentially make more progress within the negotiations. They need to be the ones who present a text within the international negotiations which enables developing nations to continue to grow before reducing emissions, and after which we should consider whether China can truly be considered a global inconvenience.

At the same time whilst we continue to pin the blame, the UK in particular should realise that the only reason our emissions have continued to decline is because our manufacturing industry has moved to China and the developing world. In other words, per person our emissions are nearly four times as high as China, meaning we consume more as individuals than Chinese people do, and this is a reason to take notice. This is not to say we should become responsible for China’s emissions but we do need a radical shift in our culture to meet the demands of resource depletion and resource degradation. Yes we do need to talk about green jobs, but we also need to talk about sustainable lifestyles, banking ethically and living within a local community. Until we become a perfect model for climate action then we cannot criticise others.

The jury is still be out as to whether China was a global leader in Copenhagen or a global inconvenience, but they are taking positive action and they are seeing the effects of climate change already. For this reason, there are still many hurdles that we need to overcome nationally and within the developing world before we can move any further, in a time frame of just two years.

As well as discussing inter-generational equity we also need international equity and respect and trust amongst all nations. The fact that some countries would rather spend an entire plenary session in the UN talking about the world cup, that they are prepared to negotiate in private and that they are prepared to postpone negotiations due to a lack of translators, in an international institution, means that we need to fix the system at the same time as undertaking national action, before trying to pin the failure on any one nation.

In other words, we can do more. Without a stable ladder we cannot climb, without wallpaper we cannot paint and without an adequate forum we cannot negotiate. But we need to act fast and with the urgency of now.

As it has already been said, climate change is a threat but it is also an opportunity. Chinese philosophers have for many years respected the environment and Chinese young people share their beliefs, and we have already seen this in China. So let us not let the UK get behind in this race and let us continue to take positive action here in the UK.