China and climate change take stage at APEC

[hedgetrimmer]

Source: Scotsman.com

By Bill Tarrant

SYDNEY (Reuters) - China takes the spotlight at the Asia-Pacific leaders forum on Thursday when President Hu Jintao meets U.S. President George W. Bush and Australia's prime minister to discuss security, product safety and climate change.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard meets in the morning with Hu, who has had a warm reception since his arrival on Monday when he visited the mining-rich state of Western Australia before heading to Canberra and a tour of a sheep farm.
But in Sydney, police said three rallies are scheduled on Thursday to protest against China's human rights record, including one by the religious group Falun Gong and another by the "Free China Association".
-------- The draft calls for "aspirational" energy efficiency targets, rather than binding ones, adding some 20 million ha of forest cover in the region and transferring emissions technology to help developing APEC economies adapt to climate change.
But developing economies -- including China -- are strongly opposed to any wording that commits them to binding targets and some say they would prefer climate change goals be handled at a U.N. meeting later this month.
--------- On climate change, Bush said China has "to be a part of defining the goals".

"Once we can get people to define the goals, then we can encourage people to define the tactics necessary to achieve the goals," he said at the news conference.



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