China To Host Climate Talks Before Mexico Meeting: Report

Chris Buckley PlanetArk 6 Jul 10;

China will host an extra round of international negotiations in October aimed at fostering agreement over a new climate treaty, the United Nations' top environment official said in remarks published on Monday.

Achim Steiner, a U.N. Under-Secretary General who is director of the U.N. Environment Program, told the China Daily the extra round of negotiations would take place in the north Chinese port city of Tianjin, which is close to Beijing.

"China will introduce some new ideas and opportunities to move the negotiation forward," said Steiner, who has been visiting China.

Governments are hoping to strike agreement on a new binding climate change treaty after a summit in Copenhagen late last year ended with a weak and non-binding accord.

The newly added Tianjin talks will come in the build-up to the next major ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29-December 10, when climate officials hope to agree on the key elements of a new treaty, if not the details.

China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases from human activities, having outpaced the United States, and its position on controlling emissions will be crucial in efforts to build a new pact on fighting global warming.

But officials from China and other countries have voiced doubts that Cancun can clinch a binding climate treaty. That was more likely to occur during major climate talks in South Africa at the end of 2011.

In May, Xie Zhenhua, who led China's delegation to the stormy negotiations in Copenhagen, said the only target for the gathering in Cancun was a "positive result."

(Editing by David Fogarty)

China to host new round of climate talks: report
Yahoo News 5 Jul 10;

SHANGHAI (AFP) – China will host an extra round of climate talks in October before a UN summit in Cancun at year's end as nations attempt to devise a post-2012 treaty, state media said Monday, quoting a UN official.

United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner told the China Daily that the world body was working with Beijing to organise the meeting in the eastern port city of Tianjin.

"China will introduce some ideas and opportunities to move the negotiation forward," Steiner was quoted as telling the newspaper during a visit to the World Expo in Shanghai on Sunday.

The dates have not yet been finalised for the Tianjin meeting, the report said. The next UN climate convention meeting will take place in Cancun from November 29 to December 10. Preparatory talks were held in Bonn last month.

"China's gesture is quite positive" and can make a "great difference" in laying the groundwork for the Cancun meeting, Steiner said, but stressed the Tianjin meeting did not mean Beijing alone would set the agenda.

"By hosting a UN meeting it doesn't mean China, as host government, will determine the negotiation results," he said.

Nations are seeking to overcome the acrimonious divisions that surfaced at the Copenhagen summit on global warming last year to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

He Jiankun, vice-chairman of China's experts panel on climate change, said the Tianjin meeting was being organised because all sides saw a need for more preparation before Cancun, the report said.

"The extra session was added as all believe more preparatory talks would help nations reach more agreements during the year-end negotiations on which great hope (rests)," he was quoted as saying.

Yu Qingtai, Beijing's top climate negotiator, indicated over the weekend that China, the world's number one carbon polluter, would maintain its argument of "differentiated responsibility" for developing countries at climate talks.

"No progress can be achieved if we deviate from such a principle," Yu was quoted as saying by the newspaper.