Some suggest there’s no point in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide we produce, because it will be insignificant compared with the amount made by the profligate Chinese.

One could be forgiven for thinking that well over one thousand million Chinese produce CO2 as though their lives depend on it, but this is simply not the case. Indeed, it’s just the opposite as China faces significant environmental problems with flooding on the coasts, typhoons, soil erosion, water shortages, melting glaciers, spreading deserts and air pollution. They know what’s going wrong.

In an effort to combat drought and deserts, the Chinese plant more trees each year than the rest of the world combined and, by 2011, forest cover will top 20 per cent, compared with less than ten per cent in the UK.

The five-year pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by a fifth is supported by direct government intervention, resulting in a quarter less energy being used per unit of production and serious attempts to rein in the growth of coal-fired power stations.

They have closed dozens of the smaller units, so now the thermal efficiency is greater than US counterparts, and the first CO2-free plant should produce electricity by 2015.

There will be fewer new coal plants in the future, as major investment in nuclear power, to quadruple present levels, means there will be 18 new plants under construction from 2010.

The Chinese are well on the way to producing 15 per cent of their electricity from wind and solar power by 2020, with currently five times more wind power than the US. The 50 per cent government subsidy for solar power makes them now the world leaders, helped by a good feed-in tariff to the grid for individual properties.

Amazingly, one-in-ten houses has a hot water solar panel, and this is expanding by 20 per cent each year. At a local level, there are thousands of anaerobic digesters producing electricity from food and green waste.

The subsidies on petrol and diesel have been removed and fuel consumption standards are higher than in the US. Additionally, there are grants for new efficient air conditioners, fridges and washers, more than 100 million low-energy bulbs distributed annually, and plastic bags aren’t free.

Chinese investment in the green economy is six times greater per person than in the US and Europe – so it’s a good job they make most of our manufactured products.

The Chinese are a better bet to achieve a low-carbon economy by 2030 than we are in the UK.