China won praise for moves to cap its surging greenhouse gas emissions at a meeting of major economies on Tuesday, even as Germany criticised the lack of progress towards a new United Nations climate treaty. "China is very active," French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters on the second day of the two-day meeting of 17 major emitters.
"Don't be mistaken, China is in a programme to limit its rise of emissions with probably a peak at 2020 or 2025," he said at the meeting of emitters including China, the United States, the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. Beijing has not set a peak year for its emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, which have been surging along with strong coal-backed economic growth.
China says rich nations, struggling with recession, first have to make deep cuts. Environment ministers are meeting in Paris to seek ways to share out the burden of curbs under a new UN climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December, fearing inaction will mean more droughts, floods, disease and rising sea levels. Germany said there was scant progress at the talks among nations which emit about 80 percent of all greenhouse gases.
"Everybody is coming here wanting progress but in the discussions we heard the old statements," Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Reuters. "There was not enough progress." He said China was "very progressive", keeping up the trend from a meeting in Washington last month. The meeting is second in a series of three meetings of the Major Economies Forum called by US President Barack Obama to pave the way for a summit in Italy in July.
Germany's Gabriel said Mexico outlined a promising idea under which all countries should contribute cash to fight global warming according to the size of their gross domestic product and their per capita greenhouse gas emissions. That would mean poor countries with low emissions would get funds and rich, high-emitting nations would pay most.
France's Borloo reiterated Obama's plans to cut US emissions were not enough. "It's not slanderous to anyone to say that - and I think the Americans know it," he said. Borloo said developed nations as a group should guarantee 2020 cuts in greenhouse gases of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 levels - the depth of cuts outlined by a UN panel of climate experts to avert the worst of climate change.
He said there should be flexibility to allow stragglers such as the United States to catch up. Obama has promised to trim US emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of 14 percent from 2007 levels. A bill approved by a key congressional panel last week would cut US emissions slightly more, by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.
Germany's Gabriel, who a year ago described President George W. Bush's policies as "Neanderthal" for forseeing a peak in US emissions only in 2025, welcomed a shift under Obama. "The Americans have changed by 180 degrees. It's a turnaround," he said, adding he also hoped for more. The European Union has promised deeper cuts, of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30 percent if other rich nations follow suit.