China demands 40% emissions cut

China, the country pumping out more greenhouse gas emissions than any other, has demanded that the world’s wealthiest nations reduce carbon emissions 40% by 2020.

In a report published yesterday, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – the body responsible for the country’s climate change policy – said the world’s wealthiest countries need to cut emissions by at least 40% compared with 1990 levels.

The report outlines China’s stance ahead of UN climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year, and calls for developed nations to donate up to 1% of their GDP to fight climate change.

“Developed countries shall undertake to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in aggregate by at least 40 percent below their 1990 level by 2020,” said the report, posted on the NDRC website.

Europe and the US, China argued, produced the bulk of carbon emissions already in the atmosphere, and so should bear a greater burden of the cost of fighting climate change.

“Developed countries shall take responsibility for their historical cumulative emissions and current high per capita emissions to change their unsustainable way of life and to substantially reduce their emissions,” the report said.

Some of the document is aimed directly at the US, which did not sign up to Kyoto, the previous UN agreement on reducing carbon emissions.

Any climate change deal agreed in Copenhagen must “ensure developed countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol assume corresponding and comparable emissions reduction commitments,” the document said.

China is believed to be the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, with its industrial sector expected to keep growing until 2035.

Governments from around the world are pushing China to act more rapidly to lower its emissions.

China, however, does not want mandatory quotas on carbon emissions. India has also indicated that it will refuse to accept carbon caps.

For its side of the bargain, China has pledged to produce 35% of its energy from clean sources by 2020, although electricity use in the country is expected to double by then.

The type of clean energy it will use was not specified.

Europe has pledged a 20% cut in carbon emissions by 2020, half of what China is demanding.

Europe said it will increase its pledge to 30% if other advanced economies agree to similar cuts.