The EU delegation's visit to China from 11-14 July was headed by Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren. He was accompanied by EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas and Spain's environment minister, who will chair EU ministers' meetings in the first half of next year.
The troika reiterated the EU's call on developing countries to curb their emissions by 15-30% from business-as-usual levels in 2020 during a meeting with the head of China's 'Climate Change and Coordinating Committee', Xie Zhenhua, and Environmental Protection Minister Zhou Shengxian.
The talks with China followed last week's meeting of the Major Economies Forum, where the 17 major emitting economies - both developing and industrialised - pledged to limit global warming to 2°C for the first time (EurActiv 10/07/09). But the EU is insisting that China needs to commit to the 15-30% target if Europeans are to upgrade their objective of slashing emissions to 20% below 1990 levels in Copenhagen in December.
"If we get that commitment, it would be possible for the EU to go up to 30%," said Leif Holmberg, a political adviser to Carlgren.
The Swedish environment minister believes that the 2°C commitment is important, but at this point the global community should also be talking about midterm targets to avoid slowing down the momentum of global talks, Holmberg stressed.
Although the Chinese did not reject the EU's demands outright, they predictably "did not agree on all points," he said. Talks will continue to be tough, as China has repeatedly stressed that the historical responsibility for emissions lies with industrialised countries, which it says should achieve a 40% emissions cut.
The main focus of the visit, technology cooperation, offered more common ground, and the EU and China agreed to organise further workshops on technology transfer as a follow-up to this week's discussions. An EU proposal that all developing countries draft national low-carbon development strategies as part of a new global climate regime has led developing countries to call for assistance in adopting clean technologies.
Indeed, clean energy partnerships are attracting increased attention as the Copenhagen climate conference approaches. US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are also in China this week, discussing opportunities for US-China cooperation in the clean energy sector.
"Today, we are more interdependent with China than at any point in the last 30 years," Locke said, stressing the mutual benefits of building relations in the area.
