Beijing will not budge on climate targets

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has issued a blunt warning ahead of the Glasgow climate conference; while in its regions a flurry of coal-fired power stations are built.

A recently built Chinese state-owned coal fired power plant in Liuzhi County, Guizhou province, southern China. Picture: Getty Images

China has told Britain it will not yield to international pressure to further improve its climate change commitments at the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

Beijing’s warning came after Alok Sharma, the UK senior climate change representative, arrived for pre-summit talks with the intention of persuading China to “enhance” its targets to curb carbon emissions.

An official Chinese pledge that carbon emissions will peak by 2030 has resulted in recent months in a flurry of provincial governments commissioning new coal-fired power stations, critics said.

China's President Xi Jinping. Picture: AFP

Sharma arrived in the northern city of Tianjin on Sunday for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, China’s special climate envoy, on “how we work together” to ensure the November summit is successful.

Yesterday he met vice-premier Han Zheng for what he called a “constructive discussion”.

For its part, China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, said it would not adjust its targets that carbon use will peak by 2030 and that it will be carbon neutral by 2060.

“China has already announced its own climate road map and will stick to its own pace,” an editorial in the Global Times, a party-run newspaper, stated.

“Uncertainties and risks remain for multilateral platforms such as the Glasgow summit due to Washington’s toxic approaches,” it said.

A coalminer in Xian, in northern China's Shanxi province. Picture: AFP

China told John Kerry, the US climate envoy who visited the country for talks last week, that the climate issue could not be divorced from the “serious miscalculations” Washington had made in its wider relations with Beijing.

The West has urged China to come up with more aggressive near-term measures to curb coal production and consumption.

Yet even though President Xi has made environmental preservation a priority, Beijing is keen to maintain its rapid economic development.

The Times