The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong’s October visit to Beijing got off to an auspicious start when she was granted a surprise meeting with Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang - making her the first Australian minister to meet with a member of China’s Standing Committee of the Politburo since relations between the two countries soured in February.

The meeting was seen as a key indicator of China’s commitment to contributing its bit to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in the lead up to the global climate change summit in Copenhagen in December.
During her China visit, Minister Wong addressed the Australian business community at a lunch hosted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.
She said a round table discussion with members of the Australian community in Beijing had raised concerns over the lack of awareness in Australia of the green technology opportunities in China and the lack of awareness in China itself of the credentials of Australian expertise in the green field.
"There have been a lot of discussions on the costs of climate change but not necessarily focus for businesses on the cost of opportunities,” Minister Wong said.
"How do we then raise awareness here in China of Australia’s capacity to contribute to some of the solutions that China will be looking for? Obviously we are very strong in some areas, less strong in others and no doubt individual companies in the years ahead will see various opportunities for their particular technologies and contribute an aspect to some of the issues that China’s economy will demand.”
HSBC figures show revenues from climate change related goods and services were worth more than US$530 billion in 2008, a 75 percent increase on the previous year.

(*picture courtesy Bernardo de Niz)