BEIJING — The Chinese government announced Thursday that it had set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 relative to economic development. China is aiming to reduce what it calls carbon intensity by 40 to 45 percent compared with 2005 levels, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
The announcement came the day after President Obama pledged a provisional target for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, the first time in more than a decade that an American administration has offered even a tentative promise to reduce production of climate-altering gases. President Obama discussed climate change with the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, when the two met in Beijing on Nov. 16.China and the United States, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, have been in discussions on options that both nations can take to address the issue of climate change. Both countries are expected to be crucial players in talks next month at international climate meetings in Copenhagen at which nations will negotiate terms for a global post-2012 treaty on reducing emissions, although leaders have said they do not expect to come to an agreement there.
Chinese officials announced Thursday that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao would attend, after American officials said Wednesday that President Obama also planned to take part in the talks himself.
In Copenhagen, Mr. Obama will tell the delegates that the United States intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions “in the range of” 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050, American officials said Wednesday.
China’s announcement on Thursday of future reductions uses an altogether different benchmark. China will measure its change in emissions by carbon intensity, or amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of gross domestic product, meaning that emissions would still grow but the rate would slow. China has rejected demands to announce an absolute reduction in carbon emissions, arguing that environmental concerns must be balanced with economic growth and that developed countries must first demonstrate a significant commitment to reducing emissions.
Ahead of Copenhagen, China has been trying to deflect pressure by showing that it has made its own commitments to battling climate change. In September, President Hu Jintao announced at the United Nations that China would reduce its carbon intensity by 2020, but drew some criticism by not giving a number at the time. Earlier, China had set a goal of reducing by 2010 the energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent compared with 2005 levels.
In Brussels, the European Commission on Thursday welcomed “the valuable steps China is taking to tackle climate change, and the leadership China is bringing to this negotiation.” But, the commission, the European Union’s executive body, said, “It will be disappointing to some that China does not go beyond business as usual.”
The commission was equally circumspect about President Obama’s comments on Wednesday. “On the United States offer, there are a number of positive elements,” the commission said. But his proposal was “lower than we would like,” the statement said, and “ will be disappointing to some.”.
The commission also pressed the Americans to come forward with an offer of money to help developing nations tackle climate change. Yvo de Boer, the United Nations climate chief, said earlier this week that developed parts of the world like the United States and the European Union should contribute around $10 billion annually from 2010 to 2012.
China stands at the heart of international concerns about global warming because it passed the United States two years ago as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and is still building coal-fired power plants at a brisk pace, although it is also expanding its investments in renewable energy.
As part of national civil service reviews, provincial and even municipal officials are now assessed partly on how they have improved energy efficiency.
In Guangdong Province, for example, provincial officials have required the 200 largest city governments and the 200 largest companies to each sign contracts pledging to improve energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2010, as older factories are being scrapped or renovated.
China has also made significant investments in alternative energy over the past four years that will help it meet its target, with further installations already planned of wind turbines, solar panels and nuclear power plants.
It surpassed the United States as the world’s largest market for wind turbines this year, after doubling installations in each of the past four years, mainly because of heavy pressure by regulators on the state-owned power companies to build more wind turbines.
The government also requires the country’s two state-owned electricity grid companies to pay more for wind energy than they do for electricity generated from coal, which still accounts for four-fifths of China’s electricity.
The Chinese government has run into some problems along the way. Power generation companies have responded to the regulations by building wind turbines in remote locations that have lots of wind but are not close to large users of electricity, like big cities or heavy industry, such as smelters or steel mills. The grid companies have been slow to build costly high-power lines to these remote locations, with the result that energy economists estimate that up to a quarter of China’s wind turbines are not actually producing electricity that anyone can use.
A draft amendment this autumn to China’s renewable energy law would require the grid companies to build connections to all renewable energy projects, and allow power companies to sue the grid companies for losses if the connections are not built, said John Leary, the managing partner in the Shanghai office of the law firm White and Case. Under the draft, which is still being discussed in Beijing, the grid companies could seek compensation from a national energy fund for the extra cost of building the extra high-power lines.
The benchmark announced Thursday was a “voluntary action” taken by the Chinese government “based on our own national conditions,” the State Council, China’s cabinet, said in a written statement, according to Xinhua.
Some analysts say China may be unwilling to make larger commitments until the United States Congress passes legislation on emissions reduction targets. The figures released by the White House on Wednesday were based on targets specified by legislation that passed the House in June but is stalled in the Senate. Congress has never enacted legislation that includes firm emissions limits or ratified an international global warming agreement with binding targets.
Mr. Obama, who had not previously committed either to emissions targets or to going to Copenhagen, has been under considerable pressure from other world leaders and environmental advocates to reassert American leadership on climate change.
Edward Wong reported from Beijing, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong. James Kanter contributed reporting from Brussels, and Jonathan Ansfield from Mequon, Wis
