Just a couple weeks ago, we told you the exciting news that China was willing to talk to the United States about climate change, and what the two countries could do to address the issue. And that was good. Well, late last week, after the United States had said progress was being made on the topic, China said it would refuse to accept any binding cuts on greenhouse gas emissions. And that’s not so good. Says TerraDaily:

“China is still a developing country and the present task confronting China is to develop its economy and alleviate poverty, as well as raise the living standard of its people,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters. “Given that, it is natural for China to have some increase in its emissions, so it is not possible for China in that context to accept a binding or compulsory target.”

Hmmm. Well, the United States seems to be okay with that, as climate change envoy Todd Stern was quoted as saying, “We don’t expect China to take a national cap at this stage…We understand China’s paramount need to grow and develop for its people… our demand is that the development with the available technologies is based on low carbon growth.” And he has also stated that developing nations need not take the same steps as developed ones. But still. Progress. Somehow. There’s a lot of posturing going on before the Copenhagen Conference on climate change, and we’ve mentioned some of the tension between the United States and China on the matter. Hopefully, these talks and the dialogue opened will lead to some sort of tangible successes. Eventually.

photo credit: jaaron’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons