US PRESIDENT Barack Obama's special climate envoy has warned China that it must be a major player in a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and should not expect short-term financial help from wealthy nations to do so.
Speaking after arriving at the Copenhagen climate summit, envoy Todd Stern hit back at criticism from China that the US and other major developed countries were not doing enough. He said a deal was not possible without Beijing taking on a binding commitment.
China is resisting signing up to an international treaty or allowing verification of its emissions on the ground that wealthy nations have failed to commit to emission cuts of 25-40 per cent by 2020 as proposed. The US has proposed a provisional target, yet to be passed by its Congress, equivalent to only a 4 per cent cut below 1990 levels.
Mr Stern acknowledged US emissions had been a large contributor to global warming, but said the Obama Administration was acting to turn them around. ''The country whose emissions are going up dramatically, really dramatically, is China,'' he said. ''You can't even think about solving this problem without having action from China.''
He cited International Energy Agency figures that 97 per cent of the emissions growth by 2030 would come from the developing world and half of that would be from China.
Mr Stern's media conference came amid a hardening of divisions between rich and poor nations, and a growing rift between the poor and very poor.
Su Wei, director-general of climate change in China's National Development and Reform Commission, earlier said the US target did not amount to a ''remarkable and notable figure'' as promised by the umbrella group covering the developed nations outside the European Union.
The US has promised to ramp up its cuts to 83 per cent below 2005 levels by 2050. China has a commitment to cutting its carbon intensity - a measure of its industrial efficiency - by up to 45 per cent by 2020, but not as part of an international treaty. Its total emissions would continue to rise, reflecting that it is still a developing country.
Mr Stern said the US would maintain its opposition to signing the current Kyoto Protocol, but was open to a different form of treaty as long as it was not just ''taking the Kyoto Protocol and putting a new title on top of it''.
He backed the likely creation of a ''quick start'' green fund worth $US10 billion a year for three years to help the developing world cope, but said he did not expect China to benefit.
''China has a dynamic economy which has led to it sitting on $US2 trillion of reserves,'' he said. ''I don't envision public funds, certainly from the United States, going to China.''
Meanwhile, Australia won applause for releasing a joint paper with Britain, Norway and Mexico on how to finance the cost of fighting climate change.
It included emissions reduction schemes on international shipping and aviation and using the revenue to help the poorest nations. But the paper included no specifics about how much a fund, or funds, would cost.
Email a friend