China targets cuts in greenhouse gases

CHINA, the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, set its first numerical target to slow their growth a day after the US offered its own goal, giving impetus to next month’s global climate-protection talks.

China will cut output of carbon dioxide gas per unit of gross domestic product by 40% to 45% by 2020 from 2005 levels, according to a statement yesterday in Beijing from the State Council, or cabinet. The US, the second-largest air polluter, said it will bring to the talks an offer to directly reduce emissions by about 17% for the same period.

The moves “can unlock two of the last doors to a comprehensive agreement” to curb global-warming gases, Yvo de Boer, the top UN climate official, said yesterday in a statement. The European Commission welcomed the goals while urging both nations to go further, according to a draft statement today.

The Chinese target gives the world’s fastest-growing major economy new negotiating points heading into the UN conference in Copenhagen that starts December 7. Premier Wen Jiabao and US President Barack Obama are among at least 66 global leaders who will seek to reach agreement on a framework for a final accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

US legislation backed by Obama to cut greenhouse gases and establish a market for the trading of pollution allowances passed the House in June and then stalled in the Senate.

The US will be offering cuts “in the range of 17%” from 2005 levels by 2020, Carol Browner, Obama’s top adviser on energy and the environment, told reporters yesterday. That also was the first time the US has offered such a target.