COPENHAGEN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The United States and the European Union (EU) are expected to bring to the Copenhagen climate talks more notable targets on cutting its carbon emissions, the Chinese chief negotiator in UN climate talks said on Tuesday.
The U.S. target on emissions reduction and financial support to developing nations is key to the success of the ongoing Copenhagen climate change conference, Su Wei, the deputy head of the Chinese delegation to the Copenhagen conference, told a press conference.
In the run-up to the Copenhagen conference, Washington pledged to reduce its carbon emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, equivalent to a reduction of 4 percent compared with 1990 levels.
Climate scientists were proposing a 25-40 percent cut in carbon emissions in order to keep global warming under control.
The U.S. goal could not be considered "notable," Su said.
Expectations are high for the conference to seek a legally binding deal on further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. But the United States wants the conference to lead to only apolitical agreement.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who had originally scheduled a trip to Copenhagen for the early stage of the conference, now will join more than 100 other world leaders for the later, more crucial stage of the conference next week.
The Chinese chief negotiator also criticized the EU for proposing a goal that is "far from being enough" and Japan for setting impossible conditions on its reduction target.
The EU has committed to a voluntary reduction of 20 percent from 1990 levels and promised to raise the goal to 30 percent if others also aim high.
Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, "developed nations should take the lead in reducing their carbon emissions by a large margin," Su said.
Commenting on a proposed "peak" of global emissions in a leaked Danish draft, the Chinese chief negotiator said setting a peak year for emissions is unfair to nations in the developing world and it is still premature to talk about a peak year.
Su's remarks echoed the criticism of the Group of 77 and China against developed nations a day earlier for their attempt to "shift responsibility of addressing climate change and its adverse effects on developing countries."
Speaking on behalf the Group of 77 and China at the opening plenary session of the Copenhagen conference, the head of the Sudanese delegation, Ambassador Ibrahim Mirghani Ibrahim, said there is "a huge gap in developed countries leadership in modifying their longer-term trends in anthropogenic emissions" as required by the convention.
"On the contrary, developing countries are now being required to take the leadership in cutting emissions while developed countries are continuously increasing their emissions and hence continuously over-occupying the global climate space," he said.
Current decade warmest, 2009 fifth hottest, since 1850
BEIJING, Dec. 9 (Xinhuanet)-- The past decade has been the warmest since records began 160 years ago and the year 2009 ranks in the top ten warmest year, Britain's Met Office and UN World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday at the Copenhagen climate change summit.
"Despite 1998 being the warmest individual year, the last 10 years have clearly been the warmest period in the 160-year record of global surface temperature maintained jointly by the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia," the statement from the U.K.'s national weather service said. Full story
Green industry needs joint efforts by all parties
VIENNA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Energy efficiency and cuts on greenhouse gas emissions have become vital to sustainable development of human beings, participants at a regional round-table agreed on Tuesday.
The round-table, with the theme "Is green industry the next engine of growth for Asia and Pacific", was held as part of the general conference of the UN Industrial Development Organization. Full story
Climate change causing large-scale human movement, says IOM
GENEVA, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Climate change and environmental degradation is causing large-scale human movement, a phenomenon that needs to be taken more seriously by policy-makers, according to a report released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday.
The number of natural disasters has more than doubled over the last two decades, and more than 20 million people were displaced by sudden-onset climate-related natural disasters in 2008, said the report, titled "Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Assessing the Evidence." Full story
40% emissions cut in Europe feasible: study
COPENHAGEN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Despite the European Union's commitment of a 20-percent cut in emissions by 2020, Europe in fact can achieve at least a 40-percent reduction, according to a new study.
"This is the minimum scale and speed of reductions science says is necessary from rich countries to avert the worst impacts of climate change, and is the kind of deep cuts needed if industrialized countries are to repay their climate debt and make a just and effective global climate agreement possible," said the study prepared by the Stockholm Environment Institute in partnership with Friends of the Earth Europe. Full story
Special report: Global Climate Change
