China Signals Shift on Emissions
By PATRICK MCGROARTY
DURBAN, South Africa—
China gave a jolt to United Nations-led climate talks by appearing to call for binding emissions cuts, prompting some industrial powers to reconsider their positions at a conference where few had expected real progress.
European Pressphoto Agency Xie Zhenhua, China's chief negotiator at climate talks in Durban, South Africa, addressed a news conference on Monday.
Meetings that began last week in this steamy port city appeared destined to end as a well-advertised convention of environmental officials and activists swapping strategies on creating new national parks and shutter old coal-fired plants. Then China's comments by China's chief negotiator signaling a shift away from longstanding resistance to a binding emissions pact sent a charge through Durban's conference center.
Speaking to reporters Monday, the country's chief negotiator in Durban, Xie Zhenhua, said major economies including China should be legally obligated to curb greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.
"We accept a legally binding arrangement," he said.
Mr. Xie, however, said China would agree to binding cuts only if the U.S. and other powerful nations take aggressive steps in the next decade to address climate change and some key negotiators wondered whether China was throwing down the gauntlet to shift pressure on to Western countries to address climate change.
Nevertheless, Mr. Xie's comments were interpreted as a significant shift in China's earlier position of rejecting binding targets—except in the unspecified future.
Beijing's Terms China's lead envoy at climate talks in Durban said the country's five conditions to accept binding emissions cuts after 2020:
- Extended Kyoto Protocol, currently set to expire in 2012
- $30 billion annually by next year and Follow through on plan for $100 billion by 2020 to mitigate effects of climate change in poor nations
- System for rich counties to provide climate-adaptation technology and best practices to poorer nations
- A review of efforts to reduce emissions so far
- 'Common but differentiated' principles to mitigate climate change
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Officials said they would need to clarify Beijing's intentions in private meetings Tuesday with Mr. Xie. For the U.S. to agree to a binding deal, China would have to be ready to accept stringent cuts alongside the U.S., according to Todd Stern, the chief U.S. negotiator in climate talks.
"No trap doors, no Swiss cheese," he said.
While there is no expectation of a binding agreement to cut emissions in Durban by Friday, the last day in this year's series of talks that have been going on for almost two decades, China's challenge could raise hopes for a more ambitious timeline for further agreements than many foresaw when the conference opened last week.
"It is China laying the cards on the table," said South Africa's foreign minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. "I'm sure all the negotiators will also be laying their cards on the table now that [talks have] escalated."
China's terms for entering a new deal, according to Mr. Xie, include extending the so-called Kyoto Protocol, a developed-world pact to cut emissions that is set to expire next year. It would also entail following through on plans to spend $100 billion annually to mitigate the effects of climate change in poor countries.
"It's time for us to see who is acting in a responsible way," he said.
The U.S. once sought a binding international commitment to cut emissions. But China backed out of talks toward that kind of agreement at the U.N.-led climate gathering two years ago in Copenhagen. China has said it was unfair to limit its emissions while rapid development is lifting millions out of poverty, when it was the U.S.—and other advanced economies—that contributed the most to elevated greenhouse gas levels. Washington has since favored national pledges to cut emissions rather than a global law.
The U.S. never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and its extension is in doubt after Canada, Japan and Russia already indicated they won't recommit to the 1997 pact. The European Union has said it would back an extended Kyoto pact only if developing countries agree to new emissions limits, too.
European Union Commissioner and climate negotiation envoy Connie Hedegaard expressed skepticism over China's avowed shift.
"Will a legally binding deal also mean that China is equally legally bound? That is the key point and that is where I think what we've heard...still needs a lot of clarification," Ms. Hedegaard said.
—Alessandro Torello in Brussels contributed to this article. Write to Patrick McGroarty at patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com
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