APEC drops 50 percent emission cut target: China

Asia-Pacific leaders will drop a fixed target for halving greenhouse gas emissions in a final summit statement, a Chinese official said Saturday.

"On the 50 percent reduction target (from 1990 levels) by 2050, yes, it did appear in the draft," said Yi Xianliang, a Chinese foreign ministry official who is part of the country's negotiating team at world climate talks.

"However, it is a very controversial issue in the world community... if we put it in this (final) statement, I think it would disrupt the negotiation process," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Leaders from 21 APEC members including US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao are in Singapore for an annual summit ending Sunday.

The meeting is one of the last international gatherings ahead of world climate change talks opening in Copenhagen on December 7.

Chinese officials said Hu would attend a Sunday breakfast meeting called by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd dedicated to the climate change issue, and would give a speech outlining steps China has taken to battle global warming.

Obama is also expected to attend Rudd's climate breakfast, other officials said.

A rift has widened between rich nations such as the United States and developing ones like China over who should bear the most responsibility for reducing the emissions blamed for global warming.

The United States wants China to commit to aggressive steps to curb its rapidly rising emissions.

China, however, says the West bears historical responsibility for the build-up of carbon levels in the atmosphere and must shoulder most of the burden for cutting emissions.

The United States and China are the two largest sources of such emissions.

Yi declined to comment on which nations pushed for the removal of the emission cut target from the draft APEC statement, which was obtained by AFP last week.

"We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, recognising that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries," it had said.

The Chinese official said the excision of the 50-percent target was a "collective decision" by the APEC members.

Yi added that rich nations were increasingly showing a tendency to back away from tough action on climate change.

"It is fair to say that the biggest obstacle to climate change negotiations is the bloc of developed nations," he said.