China, US battle it out at Copenhagen climate change summit

Talks have continued at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, with a special envoy from the US warning China it must take part in a major deal to cut greenhouse emissions.

The envoy has defended itself from attacks directed by the Chinese delegation, who said the US and other major countries were not doing enough to combat climate change.

China has said it will not sign an international treaty due to the fact other wealthy nations have not agreed to targets of their own, while also failing to commit to new targets proposed at the summit.

”The country whose emissions are going up dramatically, really dramatically, is China,” US envoy Todd Stern said. ”You can’t even think about solving this problem without having action from China.”

”China has a dynamic economy which has led to it sitting on $US2 trillion of reserves,” he said. ”I don’t envision public funds, certainly from the United States, going to China.”

Stern also said International Energy Agency figures showed 97% of the emissions growth in the year 2030 would come from the developed world, with 50% of those emissions to come from China.

The figures have been cited by a number of developing nations at the conference, many of which have attacked “rich” nations for failing to commit to legally-binding agreements.

Su Wei, director-general of climate change in China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said a proposal before the US congress requiring a 4% cut below 1990 emissions levels was not a “remarkable and notable figure”.

Additionally, US has made aggressive statements of its own, with Stern saying the superpower would not sign the Kyoto Protocol or any agreement similar to it.

Back home, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has rejected claims reported in The Australian that over 100 Federal Government representatives are being sent to the conference.

“You’ve got to have a team of legal officials, policy advisers, to scrutinise a highly complex text, because the implications for Australia long-term are very significant,” he said, also denying reports he would have nine press secretaries were false.

“Since day dot there’s always been official photographers… who go around just compiling the Australian documentary record.”

Climate change minister Penny Wong said the size of the delegation was large, and bigger than the envoy sent by Britain, but that various reports were misleading.

“Those figures include people who are accredited by the Australian Government but are not Australian Government officials so there are some state government and local government representatives there, [as well as] some people who are listed for accreditation who have not attended.”

Rudd also denied rumours about internal chaos at the summit, saying he intended to work on an agreement without listening to speculation.

“Between now and the end of next week you’ll hear about a thousand predictions of total failure, you’ll hear a thousand predictions of stunning success,” he said. “The key thing is to just get in there and do the hard yards.”