U.S. envoy sees climate partnership with China

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants to forge a partnership with China, bringing the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases together to address global warming, Washington's top climate diplomat said on Wednesday.

This bilateral relationship could be a "positive anchor" for overall U.S.-China relations, possibly easing dialogue on such issues as trade and the Korean peninsula, said Todd Stern, the U.S. special envoy for climate change.

Stern said he expected no signed document from meetings he will have in China next week, but that in the future, the areas for possible partnership include energy efficiency, electric vehicles and carbon capture and storage.

"I do not expect to have a big deliverable or a big agreement to wave around at the end of the trip, but this trip is one piece of what is going to be an extended interaction with the Chinese at all levels," he said. "So yes, the vision that we have is of a clean energy and climate partnership bilaterally with the Chinese."

China is now the world's biggest emitter of climate-warming carbon dioxide, in large part because of its fast-growing economy and its reliance on coal. The United States is second.

While China is curbing its carbon intensity -- the measure of greenhouse emissions as related to economic output -- its absolute emissions are soaring, Stern said, adding that China now emits about four times as much carbon as the United States does for every unit of its GDP.

Stern sets off for China on Saturday, along with White House Science Adviser John Holdren, the U.S. Energy Department's David Sandalow and other officials.

The envoy told a gathering at the Center for American Progress that China needs to "rebalance its economy" to cut down on polluting industries and to increase environmentally cleaner alternatives, especially to coal-fired power plants.