Bonn, Germany (Platts)--7Apr2009

The Chinese government will not commit to deep cuts in its national
emissions of CO2 even if the US government agrees to a legally binding target
to reduce its output of the global warming gas, Chinese government official Yu
Qingtai said Tuesday.

In a wide-ranging interview, Yu--who is a Chinese ambassador to the UN
and special representative to UN-led climate talks taking place in Bonn,
Germany this week--said that the Chinese government has already committed
itself to a series of domestic-level CO2 emissions reduction plans that will
eventually result in deep cuts in its production of polluting gases.

As such, Yu said that the Chinese government is unwilling to commit to a
new, legally binding, internationally agreed cap on its CO2 emissions, partly
because it views existing pledges from the EU and other developed economies as
being insufficient to result in the mitigation of climate change.

"We do not believe that the EU's 20% goal is sufficient to lead to
substantial progress in preventing climate change," Yu said of the EU's
existing 20% goal to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020 or 30% by 2020 if a
global climate deal is reached.

"I would strongly disagree that China will follow suit in cutting its
emissions. China has always been there, right in the front in international
endeavors to fight climate change despite the fact that we are a developing
country," Yu added.

Yu said that a recent Chinese government document outlining "specific
targets for each and every sector of the economy" to reduce "energy intensity
per unit of [gross domestic product] in a "specific time frame" is China's
answer to developed world CO2 emissions reduction efforts. The document
mandates a 4% annual reduction in energy intensity per unit of GDP between
2006 and 2010, leading to a 20% reduction in energy intensity by the end of
the five-year period, Yu said, adding that energy intensity is the
"consumption of energy per unit of GDP output."

"Given the size of the Chinese economy, some experts have worked out an
equivalent figure...this would mean a reduction in emissions of around 1.5
billion tonnes of CO2. So that is a major reduction achieved through a
nationally binding target," Yu said.

The Chinese government is also committed to domestic goals to require
10% of its energy mix to come from renewable sources by 2010 and to reforest
20% of the country in five years, which Yu said would be equivalent to
"billions of new trees for use as a carbon sink."

But Yu said discussions among parties to the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change meeting this week in Germany have "not progressed as quickly as
I would have hoped."

"I sometimes get depressed at the slow pace of these talks, but then I
remember that the negotiating process is supposed to be like this," Yu said.
"We remain optimistic that these talks will produce meaningful results by
Copenhagen" when a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol could be
finalized.
--Russell Dinnage, russell_dinnage@platts.com