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Shi Jiangtao

China will host delegates from nearly 200 countries  in the northern port city of Tianjin  today for a meeting aimed at getting the foundering global climate change talks back on track. 
It is the first time that China - now the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases - has hosted a formal round of climate talks in 20 years of international negotiations on the topic.
The week-long Tianjin meeting - the last official negotiations before the  United Nations climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year - has drawn worldwide attention. 
This is despite prevailing pessimism about the chances of reaching a binding deal this year on curbing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Observers say the Tianjin meeting is unlikely to result in a breakthrough. Its aim, instead, is to prepare the final documents for the November 29-December 10 Cancun  gathering.
Still, hundreds of non-governmental groups and media from around the world have descended on the city.
Analysts say the Tianjin talks give Beijing the chance to burnish its tarnished image after last year's Copenhagen summit, as well as strengthen its role as a leader of developing nations. The  summit ended in disappointment, with delegates failing to reach agreement on a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
China was widely blamed for obstructing a tougher agreement and for its part in cobbling together the last-minute Copenhagen Accord - a weak political deal with the United States and developing allies. 
But mainland officials insist that by hosting the meeting China  is reaffirming its commitment to the UN climate negotiations. The talks were on the UN agenda but did not have a host nation until China stepped in.
Li Gao , a senior mainland negotiator on climate change with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC),  blames wealthy nations  for sabotaging the process. 'We have seen a lack of willingness among rich nations to host the regular UN climate talks this year and they are also reluctant to offer financial support for such meetings,'  Li was quoted by Caixin magazine's website as saying. 'In order to push forward the negotiations  as scheduled and meet expectations from developing countries as well as the UN climate body, we have to make our own  contribution.'  
The Tianjin meeting comes  as disagreement widens over issues from  carbon targets to funding shortages and technology transfers.   
Frustrated by the lack of compromise from the world's top two carbon producers - China and the US - the European Union and some developed countries have even suggested pursuing a deal beyond the UN framework.  
Mainland officials have frequently expressed dismay at setbacks in US legislation to curb emissions. 
Li singled out Washington as the biggest obstacle to the Cancun meeting. He said the US was not necessarily indispensable to the talks, indicating Beijing had also considered signing a global climate deal without the US.
But Beijing's top climate officials have mostly avoided criticising the US. Instead, they have repeated their opposition to any bilateral or multilateral arrangements, which Beijing fears would force the nation to accept binding carbon targets like most developed nations.
Apparently learning a lesson from the Copenhagen talks, NDRC deputy director  Xie Zhenhua  stressed that the talks must be open and transparent and include extensive participation from all - and a global  consensus. Beijing's support of the UN climate framework by hosting the Tianjin meeting has been praised  by UN undersecretary general Achim Steiner   and new climate chief Christiana Figueres.  
'China's gesture is quite positive' and could make a 'great difference' in moving the negotiations forward, Steiner said, but stressed the Tianjin meeting did not mean Beijing alone would set the agenda or determine the  results.
Aware of the mounting pressure on China to make concessions on key elements of the new treaty - such as binding emissions targets - Xie and other mainland officials are trying to keep expectations in check.
At a briefing last week, Xie said the main task of negotiators in Tianjin was 'to turn the political consensus reached in Copenhagen into practical action' in order to lay the groundwork for the Cancun summit's negotiating text.  
Dr Jiang Kejun , with the NDRC's  Energy Research Institute, stressed that the Tianjin talks would be a low-level meeting, and not a place to resolve major disputes.
Officials from China and other countries  have said that a binding protocol would be more likely agreed at key climate talks in South Africa at the end of next year. 
Analysts are pessimistic about the chances of China or other key negotiators - notably the US and EU - changing their stance and making big compromises in Tianjin or Cancun.
'We should not expect any perfect ending at the climate talks because there will never be progress without the necessary compromise,' Li Yan,  a climate campaigner with Greenpeace China, said.
Li and other observers have noted that the outcome of the talks  will largely be decided by political will.
'Global climate negotiations affect national security and will alter the world order eventually,' Peking University scholar Zhang Haibin said. 'China has yet to work out a long-term strategy to deal with climate change politics and embrace the challenges of global warming scientifically and technologically.'



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