Following my short article a few weeks back on the importance of getting the big, big players to make meaningful agreements at Copenhagen a few weeks back I can only imagine that Mr's Obama and Jintao have logged onto Big Green Smile. Who am I kidding. However there is news afoot that the USA and China have been holding secret climate change talks which began will Bush was still around and that these have been continued under the Obama administration with a possible deal to be announced in the Autumn.
The talks were apparently initiated by the vice chair of China's central economic planning body Xie Zhenhua with the aim of achieving an understanding with States before the big event in Copenhagen in December. The main points of discussion revolved around
- Achieving a 20% in carbon emissions by 2010 using existing technologies.
- Co-operating on new technologies including car fuel efficiency and carbon storage.
- Both the US and China signing up to a climate change bill at Copenhagen.
With the main focus of getting China off from its unsustainable demand for coal consumption which alone could reek havoc on climate change is it not addressed no matter what else is agreed at Copenhagen. A glimmer of hope perhaps?
