Copenhagen--China's complicated relationship with the West is casting a cloud over global talks on climate change, contributing to the tepid outcome of the high-stakes Copenhagen summit, observers say.

China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, played its cards close to its chest at the 12-day summit with Premier Wen Jiabao moving little beyond previous statements.

But China came in for sharp criticism for its firm line on what emerged as a key dispute -- how to verify that emerging economies are fulfilling their pledges to crack down on carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

The final statement pledged that verification would respect nations' sovereignty. And it offered no target for cutting emissions by mid-century -- a step rejected by China and fellow emerging economies such as India which say that rich nations bear primary responsibility for climate change.

"It's a lot less ambitious even than the position papers submitted by China. It's very sad that we built up all this momentum and ended up with such a weak document," said Yang Ailun, the climate campaign manager for Greenpeace China.

Yang noted that China has rapidly stepped up action against climate change in recent years, including announcing ahead of Copenhagen a plan to reduce the intensity of its carbon emissions.

"From a domestic perspective, China is very progressive and has come a long way," she said.

"But it's still a country that's trying to understand what kind of international responsibilities it has."

The United States -- the second biggest polluter which with China accounts for more than 40 percent of global emissions -- has been adamant that developing nations prove they are acting against global warming, a stance backed by the European Union and Japan.

Since taking office in January, President Barack Obama has sharply changed US policy to take action against climate change. But a bill to cap emissions faces opposition in the Senate, where lawmakers want assurances that the United States will not lose its competitive advantage.

"It seems that in Washington whenever you ask the question of what is the US going to do about climate change, the question turns into what is China going to do," said Andrew Deutz, director of international government relations at the US-based Nature Conservancy.

Asked at a press conference about China's position, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown took a swipe at Beijing for "clinging to their version of what an international organisation should not do."

Isabel Hilton, editor of London-based ChinaDialogue, said the irony was that China wants to build a verification regime for its own purposes.

But outside monitoring is China's "worst nightmare," Hilton said.

"Their suspicion has always been that the Americans are trying to stop their rise, and that they will use these instruments somehow as a way of sabotaging China's progress. That does not appear to be the case," she said.

But in a sign that may bode well for future negotiations, the two countries have a growing working relationship on climate change. Obama and Wen met twice one-on-one to negotiate in Copenhagen.

Some observers say that climate change could eventually become a means for cooperation rather than conflict between the United States and China.

"It's an opportunity to reset the US-China relationship," said Julian L. Wong, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington think-tank.

"Obama's foreign policy is to be a more engaged partner on the international stage, so this is really the perfect opportunity as it's a pressing issue and there are economic opportunities," he said.

China, while nominally part of a negotiating bloc of developing countries, appeared to distance itself in Copenhagen from nations such as Sudan and Venezuela which furiously denounced the United States throughout the talks.

"Concerning their basic interests, China is still in line with developing countries," said Zhang Haibin, an associate professor and expert on environmental diplomacy at Peking University.

"But the disparity among developing countries' interests are growing amid the severity of climate change, which hurts developing countries as a whole."

(Space Daily, December 20, 2009)