China should halve CO2 emissions by 2050: U.S.

China 2050 Emissions Target underscores a proposed 50% greenhouse gas cut under a UN climate treaty, aligned with Copenhagen goals, energy efficiency plans, carbon curbs, and potential US border tariffs to prevent unfair trade.

China should roughly halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to keep the world on a safe climate path, the head of the U.S. delegation at UN climate talks in Barcelona.

Jonathan Pershing also urged China, which has overtaken the United States as the top emitter, to clarify its goals for curbing its greenhouse gases as part of a new UN pact due to be agreed in December in Copenhagen during the Copenhagen deal talks.

Leading industrialized countries agreed at a summit in Italy in July that the world must halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change, while China has urged greenhouse gas caps within about two decades, and promised to cut their own emissions by 80 percent.

China should cut by about 50 percent, even as it wrestles with growth versus greenhouse gas limits at home, which would allow for somewhat lower targets for poorer countries and give them room to grow their economies, Pershing told Reuters on the sidelines of the 175-nation talks in Barcelona.

"If you put China in there at a 50 percent reduction, if we're a bit higher, that gives lesser developed countries a bit lower. If they are in that middle band, plus or minus some percentage, that seems about right."

China would be on course to meet that goal if, rather than strict emission caps alone, it repeated its present energy efficiency five-year plan into the future, he added.

"They're doing pretty well," he said. Beijing has not set a 2050 goal for its emissions, saying that it needs to put priority on ending poverty, even as a possible path to carbon neutrality is debated domestically. The United States has not made a formal demand of China.

Pershing also said that the United States has not ruled out use of border tariffs if Washington feels that foreign exporters are getting an unfair advantage under a deal in Copenhagen under which carbon curbs push up U.S. energy costs.

"We cannot rule them out," he said. "The answer is that there is no decision."

The United States was "not opposed" to a legally binding climate treaty, under the UN process, Pershing added.

Related News

• Electricity Forum News

• Climate Change News