Are US and China edging towards a climate détente?

Top US negotiator says it could still be possible to deliver a climate deal in Cancun

BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, 22 Oct 2010
The US and China this week moved to revive faltering hopes that some form of international climate deal can still be struck at the upcoming UN summit in Cancun, Mexico, following bilateral talks between the two economic heavyweights.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting in Beijing, chief US negotiator Todd Stern said he remained optimistic that a deal could be done in Cancun.

Stern provided few details about the latest talks, revealing only that the US had made no further concessions in its controversial position on emissions targets. But he did describe the meeting as constructive and insisted some form of climate change deal could still be agreed later this year.

“I think that there is a deal to be had,” he said, before adding that it was also possible “that it won’t come together”.

However, the meeting will still be regarded as a something of a breakthrough and provides a marked contrast with the last round of climate change talks in the Chinese city of Tianjin earlier this month, which were marred by thinly veiled hostility between the US and Chinese negotiating teams.

Speaking at the close of those talks, China’s chief negotiator, Su Wei, compared the US to a pig in a classic Chinese novel that is said to spend its time preening itself in a mirror, and accused the US of hypocritically attacking emerging economies’ efforts to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

Jonathon Pershing, the lead US negotiator at the talks, responded by accusing China of undermining the agreement reached at last year’s UN summit in Copenhagen by failing to agree to binding emissions targets backed by an international monitoring regime.

The standoff between the two countries centres on China’s refusal to submit to an international system for monitoring emission targets until the US signs up to more ambitious emission targets in line with scientists’ recommendations. In turn, the US has accused China of failing to bring its soaring carbon emissions under control and is insisting that large emerging economies must sign up to binding emissions targets.

However, following the Beijing talks Stern struck a conciliatory tone, admitting that China faces a daunting task to curb its emissions growth and praising the country’s high profile commitment to low-carbon technologies.

“China’s got a juggernaut of an economy and it’s no criticism that the emissions trajectory that China faces is a daunting one,” he told reporters. ” The trajectory is tough because of the power and success of the Chinese economy, so it’s going to be an ongoing challenge.”