China
promised Monday to better control emissions of greenhouse gases, unveiling a national program to combat global warming, but rejected mandatory caps on emissions as unfair to countries still trying to catch up with the developed West.
While the program offered few new concrete targets for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gases that are believed to contribute to global warming, it outlined steps China would take to meet a previously announced government goal of improving overall energy efficiency in 2010 by 20 percent over 2005's level.
As the industrialized nations of the Group of 8 gather in Heiligendamm, the forces mustered to fight global warming have divided into competing camps.
Germany
and
Britain
seek urgent talks on a new climate change treaty, to go into effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. They talk of stiff measures to curb carbon emissions and limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius over the coming four decades. The
United States
, offering an initiative of its own, opposes what it considers to be arbitrary targets and timetables.
The
United States
and
Canada
come in last under World Wildlife Fund's Climate Scorecards, which rate each of the G8 countries' performance on climate change.
According to the scorecard, the
United States
and
Canada
have yet to begin limiting emissions of heat trapping gasses in a timeframe that will avoid dangerous climate change.
