[NYTr] China wants rich nations to take lead in climate talks

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Nov 22, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK29909320071122

China wants rich nations to take lead in climate talks

BEIJING (Reuters) - China wants next month's international talks on
global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries
and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said
on Thursday.

China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the
main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more
heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even
catastrophic, climate change.

Next month in Bali, countries will start what are sure to be tough
negotiations over how to fight global warming. The United Nations hopes
to launch two years of talks to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol,
whose initial phase ends in 2012.

The United States, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has
refused to ratify the protocol, which the Bush administration has
called unfair and ineffective.

With China's greenhouse gas output set to soar, many Western politicians
want Beijing to spell out its goals for limiting emissions growth --
something developing countries are not obliged to do under Kyoto.

But Song Dong, an official in the Chinese Foreign Ministry's section
preparing for the Bali talks, said negotiations should focus on
developed countries' responsibilities, not China.

"Now I think the most crucial task is to complete negotiations for
emissions reductions by developed countries after 2012," Song told a
news conference.

He said rich countries also needed to "do better in transferring
(emissions reducing) technology so developing countries can afford it.
That's one of our fundamental claims in the climate change sphere."

Song spoke at a briefing on China's response to a U.N. panel report
summing up forecasts for global warming.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao repeated China's
position that developing countries should not be required to adhere to
specific targets on emissions.

"The critical principle is that developed countries and developing
countries should have common but differentiated responsibilities," Liu
told a news conference.

"We don't believe developed countries should impose compulsory
objectives on developing countries."

TURBULENCE

Chinese experts say climate change could badly damage the country's
coastlines, water resources and farms.

The country's pattern of abundant rains in the south and drought in the
north could be reversed, bringing turbulent changes to farming, said Luo
Yong, a deputy director of the national meteorological centre.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday that Beijing would hold a
meeting next year for Asian countries to discuss climate change.

But China also remains committed to rapid economic growth that will lift
greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come.

China's contribution to global carbon emissions by 2030 would rise to
more than a quarter from a fifth now, while its per-capita contribution
would still be less than half the United States, the International
Energy Agency said this month.

Song said the Bali talks had to focus on adapting to inevitable climate
change as well as cutting rich countries' emissions.

"Because developing countries are extremely vulnerable in the face of
climate change, so for them the issue of adaptation is more prominent,"
he said.

]Reporting by Chris Buckley, editing by Nick Macfie and David Fogarty]

) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.