US diplomat optimistic on global climate pact

The United States envoy for climate change told a Chinese audience he is optimistic that world leaders will come to a deal on climate.

At a speech in Beijing Friday, Todd Stern emphasized the advantage that he says China and the United States have in the negotiations thanks to their own agreement announced last year, The Associated Press reported.

{mosads}He said negotiators as a whole have “a greater level of convergence on some very important structural issues” when compared with the last attempt at a global deal in 2009.

“I think we’re on the same page on some issues, not every issue probably,” Stern said, referring to the U.S.-China joint announcement to cut emissions announced in November. “But we are working I think in a closer and more cooperative basis than we ever have before.”

China said in that deal that its carbon emissions would peak in 2030.

Stern said he has not gotten any indication that China wants to push that deadline forward.

“We didn’t have any sense from within the [Chinese] government that there were views on their readiness to announce 2025 or 2020,” he said, according to AP.

He also said officials in the U.S. and China had not agreed on when or if China’s emissions would decrease after 2030.