Miliband laments climate result amid strains with China
* China accused of ‘hijacking’ Copenhagen climate talks
BEIJING: Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed his disappointment on Monday over the Copenhagen climate summit, a day after China’s premier hit back at charges Beijing sabotaged the meeting.
Miliband’s comments in Beijing underlined lingering strains between the two countries over the December summit since his brother, Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband, said Beijing had “hijacked” the talks. “We were very disappointed by the outcome of the Copenhagen conference and we all have to take responsibility to make sure that in the year ahead up to the Mexico meeting we regain lost ground,” the foreign secretary told reporters.
Mexico hosts the next UN summit on climate change beginning in November. Ed Miliband wrote in a newspaper article in December that China had vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the UN-backed talks in the Danish capital. He also said Beijing had blocked an agreement on reductions in global emissions — charges that China has denied.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao again dismissed the charges on Sunday, and denied he snubbed a meeting of state leaders including US President Barack Obama at the summit, saying China was not even invited. A controversy had erupted after reports emerged that Wen sent a low-ranking foreign ministry official to the meeting.
“Why was China not notified of the meeting? We have so far received no explanation for this and it remains a mystery to me,” he told reporters at an annual press conference to close parliament. He also said China - the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases - was unfairly perceived as a climate change spoiler. “It still baffles me why some people continue to make an issue about China,” he said, adding that his “conscience is clear” and the Copenhagen outcome was positive. The British foreign secretary’s visit comes with ties also strained by China’s execution of a Briton for drug smuggling. (AFP)
BEIJING: Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed his disappointment on Monday over the Copenhagen climate summit, a day after China’s premier hit back at charges Beijing sabotaged the meeting.
Miliband’s comments in Beijing underlined lingering strains between the two countries over the December summit since his brother, Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband, said Beijing had “hijacked” the talks. “We were very disappointed by the outcome of the Copenhagen conference and we all have to take responsibility to make sure that in the year ahead up to the Mexico meeting we regain lost ground,” the foreign secretary told reporters.
Mexico hosts the next UN summit on climate change beginning in November. Ed Miliband wrote in a newspaper article in December that China had vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the UN-backed talks in the Danish capital. He also said Beijing had blocked an agreement on reductions in global emissions — charges that China has denied.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao again dismissed the charges on Sunday, and denied he snubbed a meeting of state leaders including US President Barack Obama at the summit, saying China was not even invited. A controversy had erupted after reports emerged that Wen sent a low-ranking foreign ministry official to the meeting.
“Why was China not notified of the meeting? We have so far received no explanation for this and it remains a mystery to me,” he told reporters at an annual press conference to close parliament. He also said China - the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases - was unfairly perceived as a climate change spoiler. “It still baffles me why some people continue to make an issue about China,” he said, adding that his “conscience is clear” and the Copenhagen outcome was positive. The British foreign secretary’s visit comes with ties also strained by China’s execution of a Briton for drug smuggling. (AFP)
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