CANCUN, Mexico, (Reuters) – Washington claimed progress yesterday in easing rifts with Beijing on ways to fight global warming as U.N. climate talks got under way in Mexico with warnings about the rising costs of inaction.
The United States and China, the world’s largest economies and top greenhouse gas emitters, have accused each other of doing little to combat global warming in 2010, contributing to deadlock in the U.N. talks among almost 200 nations.
“We have spent a lot of energy in the past month working on those issues where we disagree and trying to resolve them,” said Jonathan Pershing, heading the U.S. delegation at the talks in Cancun.
“My sense is that we have made progress … It remains to be seen how this meeting comes out,” he said.
The talks, in a tightly guarded hotel complex by the Caribbean with warships visible off the coast, are seeking ways to revive negotiations after the U.N. Copenhagen summit failed to agree to a binding treaty in 2009.
The United Nations wants agreement on a new “green fund” to help developing nations as well as ways to preserve rainforests and to help the poor adapt to climbing temperatures. The meeting will also seek to formalize existing targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
China’s chief delegate, Su Wei, was more guarded about progress.
“We’ve had a very candid, very open dialogue with our U.S. friends and I think both the U.S. and China would very much like to see a good outcome at Cancun,” he told Reuters.
Climate is one of several disputes between the two top economies, along with trade and exchange rates. Preparatory U.N. climate talks in China in October were dominated by U.S.-Chinese disputes.
Pershing said President Barack Obama was committed to a goal of cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 despite Republican gains in November elections.
Earlier, the talks opened with calls for action to avoid rising damage from floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels. The talks will draw more than 100 environment ministers next week, and about 25 prime ministers and presidents.
“Our relation with nature is reaching a critical point,” Mexican President Felipe Calderon said.
