China may make concessions on a contentious issue blocking global climate talks if developed nations show their willingness to make a breakthrough happen, a leading government think tank said yesterday.
The suggestion, by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in its newly published annual report on China's climate policies, comes as Beijing tries to manage expectations for the UN climate negotiations, which open next Monday in Cancun, Mexico.
Echoing the findings of the report, Su Wei, China's chief climate negotiator, also said it was time for industrial nations to demonstrate their willingness to make the Cancun meeting work on issues such as funding and technology transfer.
Hopes of reaching a binding deal this year on tackling global warming have faded, and even prospects for modest progress in Cancun are largely in doubt as rifts between China and the United States, the world's top two carbon emitters, show little sign of healing soon.
Despite widespread pessimism surrounding the Cancun meeting, the biggest climate gathering since the failure at the Copenhagen summit last December, the report says progress and even a breakthrough still look likely.
Professor Pan Jiahua , a leading author of the report, said developing nations could demonstrate flexibility on the highly charged emissions transparency issue as long as rich nations honoured their commitments to a climate fund.
Developed nations pledged in Copenhagen to allocate US$30 billion by 2012 to a fund to help poor nations cope with global warming. 'As long as developed nations take positive steps on setting up the fund, developing nations, including China, are likely to reciprocate the favour with compromises on transparency,' Pan said.