China digs in climate heels as EU summit opens

(NANJING) - Europe and China opened a summit Monday with Beijing backing fellow developing nations in pressing the rich world to take the lead on climate change, despite new EU appeals for Beijing to do more.

Ahead of a conference on global warming in Copenhagen, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said he discussed China's position over dinner Sunday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

"I certainly asked the Chinese and all our partners to explore the outer limits of their position," the head of the European Union executive told reporters late Sunday.

"What is at stake is very important: it's the future of our planet," Barroso said ahead of Monday's formal summit with Wen and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who holds the rotating EU presidency.

Detailing its Copenhagen offer last week, Beijing said that by 2020, it would curb emissions per unit of gross domestic product by between 40 and 45 percent compared to 2005 levels.

The pledge was not to cut greenhouse gas emissions but was essentially a vow of greater energy efficiency that would see China's fast-growing emissions continue to grow along with its economy.

And in a low-profile weekend meeting of developing nations in Beijing, participants reiterated the Chinese position that developed countries must shoulder the burden of carbon emissions cuts.

The official People's Daily newspaper said the meeting included representatives from China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Sudan, which currently chairs the Group of 77 developing countries.

They agreed to ask "developed countries to assume responsibility for emissions reduction targets", the report said.

World leaders will gather in Copenhagen for the December 7-18 United Nations conference tasked with framing a new deal for tackling global warming beyond 2012.

Leaders have warned that slow progress so far means the meeting is likely at best to yield a framework accord whose legally binding details would be hammered out next year.

The emerging economies meeting in Beijing also said the West should provide funds and technology to help poorer countries fight global warming, the People's Daily report said.

And richer powers should consider the special needs of the least developed countries in the world, including small island states and African nations, it said.

Barroso said all sides needed to do more.

"Everyone has a good reason not to do more... but at the end if we just concentrate on the reasons not to do more, then we won't succeed," he said.

The EU has offered to cut its emissions by 20 percent by 2020 based on 1990 levels, and pledged to raise that to 30 percent if an ambitious international agreement can be reached.

The White House last week said US President Barack Obama would offer to cut carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020, based on 2005 levels.

Barroso said negotiations on "percentages" were possible, "but we cannot negotiate with physics".

"We cannot negotiate against the laws of nature," he added, with scientists warning of irreversible global warming and planetary disaster without strong immediate action.