UN CLIMATE TALKS
China calls US a pig
Oct 9, 2010
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Mr Stern, in remarks at a US university, said Beijing could not insist rich nations take on fixed targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions while China and other big emerging nations adopt only voluntary domestic goals.
PHOTO: AP
TIANJIN - CHINA hit back on Saturday at US claims it was shirking in the fight against climate change, likening criticisms from the Obama administration's top climate envoy to a pig preening itself in a mirror.
Su Wei, a senior Chinese climate change negotiator, rejected comments from US climate envoy Todd Stern as a week of UN talks on fighting climate change drew to a close in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
Mr Stern, in remarks at a US university, said Beijing could not insist rich nations take on fixed targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions while China and other big emerging nations adopt only voluntary domestic goals.
Mr Su countered that Mr Stern's claims were a diversion from the United States' failure to make big cuts in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases causing global warming. China is the world's top greenhouse gas polluter after the United States.
'In fact, it amounts to doing nothing themselves and then shirking responsibility. They want to place the blame on China and other developing countries,' Su told reporters in Tianjin.
The United Nations says there is little time to agree on the outlines of a broader climate pact that binds all big carbon emitting nations and to prevent dangerous climate change, such as greater extremes of droughts, floods and storms. -- REUTERS
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