Climate Envoy Stern Says China Must Be ‘in the Game’

www.bloomberg.com
May 29

China is at the forefront of major developing nations that must help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in a new treaty to stem global warming, U.S, climate envoy Todd Stern said. The Asian nation, the world's biggest producer of heat- trapping gases, will need to make commitments in the worldwide agreement planned under United Nations leadership this year, the top U.S, treaty official said, without naming specific actions.

The U.S, and China together produce more than 40 percent of global emissions of heat-trapping gases. An effective agreement to slow climate change must reconcile their negotiating positions, analysts have said. "I don't think that there's any question that China and the other major economies have to be in the game," Stern said today on a conference call with reporters. "They're doing a lot already, but they're going to need to do more actions and commit to them and be able to quantify them."

The comments followed talks between officials from both nations in Beijing this week and remarks on May 26 by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu that the U.S, may agree to emission- reduction targets in a new treaty even if China didn't. The UN set a December deadline for the accord to be signed in Copenhagen. Stern's top negotiator, Jonathan Pershing, will lead the U.S, delegation at a two-week round of talks that begin in Bonn on June 1.

‘Some Just Watch’
The new agreement should require that certain actions to stem climate change should be undertaken by "all countries, developed and developing," Pershing said on the same call. "It shouldn't just say some countries do something and some countries watch." Climate legislation that won approval eight days ago in a House of Representatives committee would put the world's biggest economy on a similar emission-reduction track as the 27-nation European Union, Stern said.

The U.S, bill calls for industry to make a reduction that's in the mid-range between the EU's two proposals, he said. The EU, using 1990 as a base year, has vowed to cut gas emissions in 2020 by 20 percent, or as much as 30 percent if other industrialized nations follow suit. Stern said using instead a base year of 2005 or 2004, the EU proposals work out to cuts of about 14 percent or 24 percent, respectively, compared with the 17 percent decline called for in the U.S, bill from 2005 levels.

EU Comparison
That U.S, target would be a 4 percent reduction from Europe's base year of 1990, Stern said. The U.S, is pushing forward on a "suite of policies" to bring down emissions, including improved vehicle fuel efficiency standards, $150 billion of investment in renewable energy over 10 years.

In Bonn, delegates will begin to debate a draft treaty for the first time since a guideline for two years of negotiations was agreed in Bali in December 2007. The 53-page text, posted May 20 on the Web site of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will be the main focus of the Bonn talks, Pershing said.

"Countries will begin to add issues which they think are critical, new areas they think were not particularly well- covered and begin to express concerns on issues they think are not appropriate," the negotiator told reporters.