China said rich nations must vow greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and warned of lost trust in talks over a climate change deal, while rich countries accused Beijing of under cutting progress. Feuding on Friday over the future of a key UN treaty on fighting climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, has diluted hopes that negotiations in the Chinese city of Tianjin can lay a firm base for agreeing on a new, binding climate deal next year.
The week-long talks end on Saturday and are the last before a high-level meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in less than two months. Kyoto's first phase ends in 2012 and what happens after that is in contention, with rich and poor countries disagreeing over whether Kyoto should be extended or replaced with a new treaty that covers all big greenhouse gas polluting nations.
In a sometimes combative meeting of hundreds of negotiators, Huang Huikang, China's Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations, said negotiators were losing trust in each other. "Today here in Tianjin we really need to rebuild trust and confidence. We are losing confidence and trust," Huang said. "We are all concerned about the slow status of our negotiations."
The United Nations is worried the talks will stall and create a gap in application from 2013 which could halt Kyoto's $20.6 billion carbon market. Beijing wants to keep Kyoto and its firm division between the duties of rich economies and poorer ones, including China.
Washington and other rich nations want a new pact to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of annual global greenhouse gas pollution. And China wants developed countries to offer far more ambitious carbon cuts before emerging economies also shift. "Now the key issue is the lack of any substantive progress on the developed countries' side. If Annex 1 countries take the lead in the mitigation process, I suppose developing countries will do their part," Huang told reporters.
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