BEIJING (AFP) –
Top US trade and energy officials were set to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases sought to step up cooperation on climate change.
US Trade Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, both ethnic Chinese, arrived here seeking to open China's markets to US green technology while urging Beijing to set hard targets on gas emissions.
"The US and China are two great nations, and clean energy is one of the great opportunities of our time," Chu said Wednesday as he announced the establishment of a US-China Clean Energy Research Centre.
"Working together, we can accomplish more than acting alone."
The centre, which will have headquarters in both countries, is aimed at allowing scientists and engineers from the two sides to work together, according to the US government.
It is also aimed at serving as a clearinghouse for information, with key issues initially to be looked at including energy efficiency, clean coal technology and low-polluting cars.
The visit by Locke and Chu comes ahead of a UN meeting in Copenhagen in December when over 180 nations are due to negotiate a new climate agreement to replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.
China and other developing nations are refusing to agree to compulsory cuts in emissions under the new deal, saying developed countries must shoulder the responsibility for the decades of emissions that have led to global warming.
But the US officials in China have been trying to convince Chinese leaders that the world has no choice but to work together more closely.
"Mother Nature... doesn't discriminate between carbon that comes from the United States or China... we share the same atmosphere and if we do not act, we'll all suffer," Locke said here during a business lunch on Wednesday.
"As the two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide, the United States and China have a special responsibility to take action."
Locke and Chu were expected to discuss the issue with Wen during a meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Their visit to China comes ahead of the first US-China strategic and economic dialogue, to be held in Washington next week.
