China 'will honour commitments' regardless of Copenhagen outcome

Wen Jiabao says China will commit and even exceed target in passionate plea for other countries to live up to promises

Jonathan Watts in Copenhagen
guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 13.58 GMT
China, the world's biggest emitter, struck a defiant tone at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen today, setting the stage for a tense final session of the negotiations.
With prospects of a deal still remote, the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, said his country would "do its share regardless of the outcome of international negotiations."
He stressed that China's efforts are voluntary rather than binding, but affirmed that his government had proved its ability to turn words into action. "China's measures are a sign of responsibility to the Chinese people and the whole of humanity. They are unconditional and they are not dependent on the reduction targets of other nations."
As the first speaker at the plenary session, Wen mounted a passionate defence of his country's existing commitments, saying China was prepared to make a "tremendous effort" to meet its pledge to reduce carbon intensity by 40% to 45%.
While he did not directly criticise any nations by name, the premier implicitly accused developed nations of failing to live up to the promises they have made so far. But, in a potential concession, he said China might be willing to beat its own goals. "We will honour our words with real action. We commit to meet and even exceed our target," he said. But there were no new targets or signs of major change in the government's position.
China was singled out for criticism earlier in the day by French president Nicolas Sarkozy who said progress in climate talks was being held back by China. It is understood that developed nations pressed Wen hard last night to raise its targets for emissions reductions and to make its data more transparent.
China insists that, as a relative newcomer to industrialisation, it is not obliged to meet international binding targets or to allow foreign monitoring of its emissions. But Wen said China would improve transparency, echoing the slight softening of language that has been seen on the issue that is of greatest concern to the US.
Observers said the body language, tone and content of Wen's speech indicated the strains in relations between delegations. "China is not happy about being put up there as a target," said Wu Changhua of the Climate Group. "I have rarely heard premier Wen so emotional. This is not what he expected. By setting a target ahead of Copenhagen China wanted to show it is playing a constructive role."
Yang Ailun of Greenpeace said the prospects of an agreement was dim if leaders pushed too hard. "China is taking a very tough line. It feels like the tactic of pressing China to agree to demands that it is not comfortable with is not going to work."
Barbara Finamore, the China programme director of the US-based National Resource Defence Committee, saw signs of hope in the speeches by the leaders of the world's two biggest emitters: "Premier Wen and President Obama are both signalling their willingness to come to a meaningful deal. We think there is certainly space here for agreement, but it looks like the negotiators are going to have to work overtime to hammer out the details."