Clinton tries to build China climate pact

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian, Saturday 14 February 2009

Hillary Clinton hopes to recruit China as a partner in American efforts to reduce global warming when she embarks on her first trip as secretary of state with a seven-day tour through Asia this week.
Clinton believes that creating common ground on climate change, starting with a presidential summit later this year, will help reconfigure America's ties with China, advisers say. A partnership between the world's two biggest polluters would significantly raise the prospects of a global climate change deal at a crucial UN meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Breaking with the tradition for secretaries of state to visit Europe first, Clinton's tour, which starts tomorrow, will take her to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea, with China as her last stop.
Clinton set out her ideas for the climate change partnership yesterday at the Asia Society in New York. The choice of venue was telling: experts from the Asia Society and the Pew Centre for Climate Change produced a report this week setting out a roadmap for a US-Chinese partnership in tackling climate change.
Clinton was first briefed on the report several months ago and members of her team consulted the authors this week. Those involved say she sees joint action on climate change as a means to reset the relationship beyond the narrowly focused economic interests of the Bush era.
"She completely understands what is at stake here," said Orville Schell, the director of the Centre on US-China Relations, who oversaw the report.
Economics will still dominate Clinton's agenda, with talks on how China can help rescue the international financial system, as will concerns about North Korea and Iran's nuclear programmes. But in her meetings with Chinese officials, Clinton is expected to broach the idea of a presidential summit later this year between Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
The idea was raised in the Asia Study report, which also called for US-Chinese expert groups to work on developing clean coal technology, energy efficiency, and moving towards renewable energy.
Some doubts remain on whether Clinton's visit will produce any immediate results. China is enduring its worst economic climate in more than a decade and also views global warming as an economic issue, more suited for discussion with the treasury secretary, Tim Geithner.
Nonetheless, a recasting of relations is compelling for a secretary of state eager to reclaim territory after the foreign policy crises in the Middle East and Afghanistan were hived off to envoys. "If she can grab on to the China issue and reformat it in this way, this would be an extraordinary accomplishment," said Schell.
Clinton's search for ways to deepen America's relationship with China are in synch with the Asia Society report and one from the Brookings Institution promoting a partnership on climate change.
More than 50 experts took part in the Asia Society's year-long effort. A number of those who got involved as private citizens are now members of the Obama administration. They include Steven Chu, the energy secretary; John Holdren, the White House science adviser; Todd Stern, the state department's climate envoy; and Richard Holbrooke, Clinton's longtime mentor on foreign policy and the chairman of the Asia Society.
Stern, who will accompany Clinton, said last week that it was time to open a new chapter on climate change talks. He told the New York Times: "We need to put finger-pointing aside and focus on how our two leading nations can work together productively to solve the problem."
Chinese officials have also been sending out signals of co-operation. At a Brookings Institution forum last week, Beijing's ambassador to the US, Zhou Wenzhong, said China and America, by working together, could help set the stage for progress at the climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December.
The US and China together account for more than 40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.