China rejects caps, aims to cut "carbon intensity"

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to nearly halve by 2020 the amount of greenhouse gases it emits for each dollar of its economy, but will reject strict caps for decades, according to a copy of a national global warming assessment seen by Reuters.

Beijing has been reticent about what the world's number-two carbon emitter is prepared to do to tackle global warming. While the report shows officials believe it is a serious threat, it suggests they do not want to take preventive steps that could hobble economic growth.

China's first review of the problems posed by a hotter planet proposes an even more ambitious goal of an 80 percent cut in "carbon intensity" by 2050, from 2000 levels, but states that emissions per person are likely to top projected developed-nation levels before starting to fall.

If the target was made official, China would be the first major developing country to set long-term goals for braking rising emissions, as urged by the European Union and many other industrialized countries that are part of the Kyoto protocol.

"Before generally accomplishment of modernization by the middle of the 21st century, China should not undertake absolute and compulsory emission reduction obligations," said a translated summary of the report, seen by Reuters.

The "First National Climate Change Assessment" is not the last word in how China intends to address global warming, but it was drafted over four years in consultation with powerful ministries, suggesting a broad official consensus.

The final version, which gives no figures for total current or future emissions, has not yet been approved for publication. It is separate from a national plan on climate change that Beijing is expected to unveil on April 24.

The concept of cutting emissions for each unit of national income represents a rare convergence of views in the world's top two carbon dioxide producers, China and the United States.