China alone could bring world to brink of climate calamity, claims US official

China must be far more ambitious in tackling climate change if the international community wants to prevent calamitous levels of global warming, a senior US official told counterparts in Beijing today.

David Sandalow, assistant secretary of state for energy, said the continuation of business as usual in China would result in a 2.7C rise in global temperatures by 2050 even if every other country slashed greenhouse gas emissions by 80%.
“China can and will need to do much more if the world is going to have any hope of containing climate change,” said Sandalow, who is in Beijing as part of a high-level negotiating team that aims to find common ground ahead of the crucial Copenhagen summit at the end of this year.

No effective deal will be possible without the US and China, which together account for almost half of the planet’s carbon emissions.

Since Barack Obama entered the White House, hopes for a closer working relationship on climate change have surged along with a softening of rhetoric, but the official negotiating positions of the two sides remain far apart.

Before arriving for this week’s talks, Todd Stern, the head of the US delegation, said China and other developing nations are not doing enough and “need to take significant national actions that they commit to, internationally, that they quantify.”

Guardian