The US is not likely to enter into a new international treaty to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming without China and other major greenhouse-gas emitters on board, the Obama administration’s chief climate negotiator said on Wednesday.
US climate envoy Todd Stern told reporters that China and other major developing countries are critical to making any international agreement work, and there is not going to be a new treaty to curb greenhouse gases without them.
The stance is similar to one taken by the administration of former US president George W. Bush which pulled out of the current climate treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, citing the lack of participation of developing countries.
“I would not say that the United States is going to race forward with major players like China on the sidelines,’’ said Stern, the US special envoy for climate change at the State Department.
Other countries “don’t want to come in without the US, and the United States does not want to come in without them, or China, or the other main players,” he said.
Stern, along with White House science adviser John Holdren and assistant energy secretary David Sandalow, heads to China next week in an effort to boost cooperation between the two countries on clean energy technologies and find some common ground on a new international accord. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and countries are scheduled to meet in Copenhagen in December to broker a replacement.
The US during the Bush administration pulled out of the Kyoto treaty, citing a lack of participation by developing countries and potential harm to the US economy.
The administration of US President Barack Obama is willing to sign onto an agreement, and is already taking steps to reduce global warming pollution. But it too says the participation of developing countries is essential.
China and the US are the world’s largest emitters of climate-altering pollution, accounting for 40 percent of worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. The culprit is the same in both places — a dependence on fossil fuels such as coal for electricity and an insatiable appetite for oil.
The trip marks the second high-profile visit to China by US officials in recent weeks to talk climate change.
Last week, the leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other House Democrats traveled to China with a similar message: that the US and China must work together to curb global warming.
The House is currently working on legislation that would limit greenhouse gases for the first time, reducing emissions by roughly 80 percent by mid-century.
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