US officials press China on cutting greenhouse gas emissions

US energy secretary Stephen Chu and commerce secretary Gary Locke are in China to discuss joint research programmes for US-China cooperation on a number of environmental issues including clean vehicles and buildings. The US officials are also expected to get China to publicly commit to cutting greenhouse gas emission.

Chu yesterday warned in a speech at Tsinghua University, China's top science university, that if the pace of emissions of greenhouse gases was not reversed, rising sea levels would displace more people in China than in any other country and even Bangladesh.

In December the Danish capital Copenhagen will be the venue of a global meet to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a new climate treaty to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions that cause global warming. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

According to scientists major emissions cuts are needed to prevent climate change that could trigger off a chain of adverse effects including droughts, flooding and disease and cause ocean levels to rise.

China's involvement is vital to any efforts to combat global warming and though Chinese officials acknowledge the problems of global warming, they want the developed world to foot the bill. They believe that curbing emissions would hit China's economic growth and are therefore averse to emissions caps. However, China's resistance to any caps on its carbon emissions is not helping in forging a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the first global pact on greenhouse gases.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, is increasingly taking necessary steps to encourage energy efficiency and is also in the forefront in advancing green technologies like solar, wind power and cleaner technologies for burning coal. The US hopes to partner with China on many of these initiatives.