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China Spurns Pledges in Climate-Change Pact, U.S. Says (Update2)
2010-10-08 20:57:32.814 GMT
(Adds Stern comment in 16th paragraph.)
By Jim Efstathiou Jr.
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- China is ignoring pledges made under
a global-warming accord reached last year after a face-to-face
meeting between President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao, the chief U.S. climate negotiator said.
Chinese officials have acted as though the agreement
"never happened," Todd Stern, U.S. special envoy for climate
change, said in a speech today at the University of Michigan Law
School at Ann Arbor. China in December agreed to the Copenhagen
Accord, a non-binding pact that aims to limit emissions blamed
for global warming, he said.
"They have argued, despite the black-and-white language of
the Copenhagen Accord agreed to by their own and other leaders,
that China did not, in fact, agree in the accord to implement
the actions it submitted," Stern said. "In their view, they
merely listed those actions on an informational basis, a kind of
global 'FYI' with no political commitment to implement them."
Talks to control global warming stalled this week in
Tianjin, in northern China, among negotiators from about 175
governments. China and other developing markets have accused
industrialized nations of failing to honor their commitments to
curb greenhouse gases.
"Our intervention is not to block discussions," Huang
Huikang, China's special representative for climate change
talks, told reporters today. "We just want to keep the group's
discussion the right way. The key issue is the lack of
substantive progress on the developed countries' side."
China has said it will reduce the carbon intensity of its
economy, or emissions per unit of gross domestic product, 40
percent to 45 percent by 2020, said Alden Meyer, director of
policy at the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned
Scientists.
'Legally Binding'
"I don't know what the grounds are" for the Obama
administration to say China is "not being serious about its
commitment," Meyer said in an interview. "They agreed to carry
out that pledge. They're not willing to make that legally
binding."
The Copenhagen Accord, named for the Danish capital that
hosted United Nations talks in December, includes commitments
from industrialized and developing nations that aim to keep the
global temperature rise since industrialization to 2 degrees
Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Nations also agreed to negotiate independent monitoring to
verify their commitments. China has historically balked at such
measures, Meyer said.
"The agreement on paper makes no sense unless you have
actual guidelines," for verification, Meyer said.
Leaders' Accord
The accord was reached Dec. 18 after Obama held last-minute
talks with Wen, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South Africa President
Jacob Zuma as two weeks of formal negotiations in Copenhagen
drew to a close. China and India signed in March, making the
world's largest emitters of gases tied to global warming subject
to the deal.
Stern's comments signal a tough U.S. stand at a UN climate
summit that start Nov. 29 and continue until Dec. 10 in Cancun,
Mexico, Meyer said. Without progress on steps to verify
emissions cuts, the U.S. may hold up decisions sought by
developing countries on protecting rainforests or financing
efforts to adapt to climate change.
The U.S. is standing by its Copenhagen pledge to reduce
global-warming emissions about 17 percent by 2020, Stern said.
Obama hasn't said how the U.S. will reach that goal after
Congress failed to enact a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases.
'Not Very Impressed'
"China is not very impressed by what the U.S. is doing,"
Meyer said. China has been "more clear on the steps they will
take to meet their target by 2020 than the U.S. is on Obama's
pledge to meet the 17 percent cut without legislation."
The U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse
gases, have deadlocked on issues including climate-change
finance, pollution-reduction goals and verification of emissions
cuts. The U.S. declared the Copenhagen Accord a success because
China and major developing countries agreed to make commitments
to limit emissions.
"You cannot build a system premised on the notion that
China should be treated the same as Chad, when China is now the
world's largest emitter," Stern said. "As a matter of
political reality, we could get no support in the United States,
notably in Congress, for a climate agreement that required
action of us but not from China and the other emerging
markets."
Progress toward adopting a treaty limiting climate change
will depend on whether countries stick to goals outlined in the
Copenhagen Accord, Stern said Oct. 1.
For Related News and Information:
Carbon Markets: EMIS <GO>
Top Climate Stories: NI CLIMATE <GO>
Top Environment stories: GREEN <GO>
Locations of global energy facilities: BMAP <GO>
--With assistance from Stuart Biggs in Tokyo. Editors: Steve
Geimann, Larry Liebert
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jim Efstathiou Jr. in Washington at +1-212-617-1647 or
jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Larry Liebert at +1-202-624-1936 or
lliebert@bloomberg.net.
