UK's Brown focuses on climate change in China

By Adrian Croft

BEIJING (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to China switches focus to the environment on Saturday as he highlights how Britain and China can cooperate to fight climate change.

Action on climate change is a priority for Brown, who spent the first day of his visit on Friday telling Chinese officials that Britain would welcome more trade and investment from China, including from its new $200 billion sovereign wealth fund.

China is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and is poised to overtake it.

Brown's government has proposed the world's first climate change law which requires Britain to cut climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent from 1990 levels by 2050.

But if other countries do not act to tackle climate change, it will not solve the problem, British officials say.

"We very much need other countries, particularly the largest emitters ... to move similarly onto a low carbon path," one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Britain and British companies are already working with China on clean energy initiatives and agreements signed by China and Britain on Friday aim to increase that cooperation further.

Brown is due to visit a gas-fired power station in Beijing that British officials say is nearly twice as efficient as the coal-fuelled power stations China typically builds.