Are China and the US closer to breaking climate talks deadlock?

Chinese officials have given the clearest signal yet that they could sign up to some form of carbon emissions targets as part of a successor agreement to the Kyoto agreement.

The news, which comes as US legislators signalled they too could impose tough new carbon emissions targets on heavy polluters even if attempts to pass a climate change bill this year fail, will be welcomed as a sign that the two biggest players in the ongoing UN climate change negotiations could break the deadlock that has dominated the talks to date.

US negotiators, supported by Canada, Australia, Japan and others, have argued that it will not sign up to binding emission targets without a clear commitment from large developing nations that they too will agree to curb emissions in the medium term.

However, China has argued that its priority is alleviating poverty and improving living standards and that, while it is committed to tackling climate change, it will only consider signing up to binding emission targets if the rich nations that have historically contributed most to climate change agree to deeper cuts than those currently being proposed.

But in a sign that the Chinese position could be shifting, albeit only slightly, The Guardian has reported that the country's negotiating team is considering targets that would limit emissions relative to economic growth from 2011.

The newspaper quotes Su Wei, a member of China's negotiating team, as saying that so-called carbon intensity targets are a viable option.

"We can very easily translate our [existing] energy reduction targets to carbon dioxide limitation," he said. "China hasn't reached the stage where we can reduce overall emissions, but we can reduce energy intensity and carbon intensity."

Chinese officials have said in the past that they would consider emissions targets of some sort if the US and other rich nations agreed to binding targets, but Wei's claims are the clearest signal yet that emission targets related to economic growth will be on the table at the UN's climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year.

The Chinese government has recently announced far-reaching clean tech investment plans and has set targets to improve energy efficiency by 20 per cent and cut pollution by 10 per cent under its 2006-2010 plan. Now some officials are pushing for the targets to be extended for the next five years to include carbon intensity goals.

Hu Angang, an economist who advised on the previous energy efficiency targets, has presented proposals to the government calling for a carbon target and has argued that should China sign up to a carbon intensity target, it could be in a position to begin cutting overall emissions from 2020.

Su told The Guardian that the 2020 target was "not realistic", but insisted that the government was optimistic the current energy efficiency targets could be met and that a deal at Copenhagen was still possible.