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US, China to see if climate gap can be bridged
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100417/sc_afp/unclimatewarminguschina;_ylt=AmEOPB5OiVke35PwUy4zwuhpl88F;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2ZDhhdGJxBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDQxNy91bmNsaW1hdGV3YXJtaW5ndXNjaGluYQRwb3MDMjIEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDdXNjaGluYXRvc2Vl
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Four months after the widely criticized Copenhagen summit, key nations including the United States and China are trying to find out if they can bridge wide gaps on climate change.
Representatives of 17 major economies making up more than 80 percent of global emissions gather in Washington on Sunday to try to grope forward amid disputes on the shape of a future treaty on fighting climate change.
It is not the first meeting since Copenhagen -- representatives in the nearly 200-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met last weekend in Bonn, Germany for talks again riven by disagreements.
But the US-led Major Economies Forum offers a more intimate setting, away both from cameras and from smaller nations such as Sudan and Venezuela whose firebrand negotiators held up sessions in Copenhagen.
White House aide Michael Froman and US climate negotiator Todd Stern sent participants a set of questions they want to discuss at the Washington forum, which includes a closed-door dinner.
One question asks simply what each country seeks from the next UN climate summit to take place in December in Cancun, Mexico.
"Most countries have acknowledged it's going to be very difficult to close the deep gaps between countries such as the US and China," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, which supports action against climate change.
The Washington talks offer a chance to "see if there is any convergence on what these key countries want, because if there is, that will give us a sense that there might be some way forward to get progress in Cancun," Meyer said.
China has surpassed the United States for the dubious distinction of being the world's top emitter of carbon, which UN scientists say is causing global warming that could put entire species at risk if unchecked.
China has announced plans to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions and a recent study found that the growing Asian economy had leapfrogged the United States as the top investor in green technology.
But China, India and other developing nations have resisted a legally binding treaty, arguing that wealthy nations bear primary responsibility for climate change.
The United States was the only major country to reject the Kyoto Protocol, whose obligations expire at the end of 2012, calling it unfair for making no demands of emerging economies.
President Barack Obama is pushing for the first-ever nationwide plan to curb US emissions, with senators set to present long-delayed legislation later this month.
In a recent interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Obama said that while the United States needed to act on climate change, China and other emerging countries should not wait until their living standards improve as it was "not a sustainable, practical approach."
But Ben Lieberman, an expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, doubted that the talks in Washington could bridge the gap, pointing to China's heavy reliance on coal to power its economy.
"They get a lot of positive press about the wind power and solar power that they have and that they export, but that's a trickle compared with their coal-fire generation," Lieberman said.
"They've made it very clear they're not going to jeopardize economic growth for global warming," Lieberman said. "And even if they were to focus on the environment, they have more pressing problems."
Still, some China watchers say that climate change could mark a turning point in its global role. Beijing, long a champion of the developing world, faced criticism both in wealthier and poorer nations for its position.
"Copenhagen, in this respect, may have been a watershed event," said Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"For many developing countries, climate change has revealed China as less and less 'one of us' and more and more 'one of them,'" she said.
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