China to take part in post-Kyoto talks: report
TOKYO (Reuters) - China, the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will take part in negotiations on a framework for limiting global warming after 2012, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said on Saturday.
On Friday, climate experts issued their starkest warning yet about the impact of global warming, which is widely blamed on emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
China, which could overtake the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter within the year, is not part of the U.N. Kyoto Protocol, the main plan for capping greenhouse gas emissions, which is in effect up to 2012.
The Yomiuri said that Beijing would express its intention to take part in talks on setting up a post-Kyoto framework in a joint statement to be issued during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan from Wednesday.
In addition, Japan would announce that it would assist China with energy-saving technology, the paper added.
Experts have long said that if any post-Kyoto agreement is to succeed, major emitters such as China, India and the United States need to be on board.
China is set to unveil its national plan to tackle global warming later this month, and a top climate change official said in March that the plan would include policies for cutting back greenhouse gases but declined to comment on whether it would give an overall national target.
Beijing has resisted calls for caps on its rapidly rising emissions, saying rising global temperatures are largely the result of fossil fuel use by industrialized nations and it has the right to seek the same level of prosperity that they enjoy.
