Washington (Platts)--28May2009

US Senator John Kerry wrapped up a trip to China Thursday by saying that
the country, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is willing to
begin immediate bilateral negotiations on promoting clean-energy technology.

Senator John Kerry, Democrat-Massachusetts, did not mention the
possibility of China's imposing mandatory carbon dioxide reductions, as the US
Congress is considering doing.

"There are immediate opportunities for the United States and China to
collaborate on climate change and clean energy issues," said Kerry, who heads
the chamber's Foreign Relations Committee.

"In my meetings this week, Chinese leaders assured me that China will
play a positive and constructive role in the Copenhagen negotiations."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, is also visiting China
during Congress' Memorial Day recess, and both lawmakers have released
statements which focus on technology and efficiency standards rather than a
need for mandatory controls in advance of December's United Nations Climate
Change Conference in Copenhagen.

David Pumphrey, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, said that by not focusing on a mandatory reduction
scheme the lawmakers showed they understood that China and the US are in
different places economically and politically.

"The tradeoffs they have to make and believe they have to make between
sustaining 8% economic growth and continuing to grow the energy sector and
figuring out how to do that in a low carbon way are very tough," Pumphrey said
of China. "I don't think we can expect them to come out with something like
what we're looking at."

Pumphrey said he expected to see the Chinese government prepare for
Copenhagen by communicating that it was committed to reducing GHG emissions,
though not through a cap. The world's third leading emitter, India, would more
likely take the view that responsibility for curbing emissions should fall to
the industrialized West, he said.

Kerry said in his statement that he hoped China and the US would
"demonstrate concrete progress in the weeks ahead," which would lay the
foundation for future climate change agreements at "Copenhagen and beyond."

Pumphrey noted that the US was unlikely to have a carbon law in place by
December, and the international community was already raising the likelihood
of post-Copenhagen talks to finalize a treaty that would be the successor to
the Kyoto Treaty.

--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com