BEIJING (AP) — China and the United States took small steps toward their shared goal of fighting climate
change on Wednesday, but the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 carbon emitters remain significantly apart over a
wider global plan to cut emissions.
China’s chief climate official Xie Zhenhua said China should not be subject to the same rules for
greenhouse gas emissions as the United States and other rich countries, signaling that Beijing will
oppose any attempt to impose them at next year’s world climate conference.
“We are in different development stages, we have different historical responsibilities and we have
different capacities,” Xie told reporters.
The U.S. special envoy Todd Stern said Washington favors every country deciding what it is capable of
doing, instead of being categorized either as a developed country or a developing country in deciding
how much a country should contribute to reduce climate change.
Asked how receptive the Chinese were to this idea, Stern said: “It’s one of those conversations that just
goes on and on, doesn’t stop.”
For years, the United States and China have been at odds over how much each country should contribute to
reducing climate change. China insists as a developing country it shouldn’t be held to the same
stringent emissions caps as the rich world. The U.S. says that means failing to sufficiently address the
problem given that China has significantly surpassed the U.S. as the world’s biggest emitter of carbon
dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that is a byproduct of burning coal, oil and gas.
Climate change activists complain that both countries have failed to take adequate steps to curb
emissions. President Barack Obama recently announced a plan to cut by 30 percent greenhouse gas
emissions from existing power plants, but set a deadline of 2030, by which time researchers say the
amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will already have caused drastic changes to the planet.
Xie and Stern made their remarks as Chinese and American officials — led by U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew — are meeting in Beijing for annual strategic and economic talks
that aim to forge a more cooperative relationship between the world’s two largest economies.
The difference on the global plan aside, the two countries announced eight joint projects on carbon
capture, utilization and storage and smart grids, and agreed to adopt stronger fuel efficiency and other
standards on Wednesday.
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AP writer Bradley Klapper contributed to this report.