Familiar contention at international climate talks

Bloomberg Businessweek : Delegates at the United Nations climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, have expressed frustration with what has become a hallmark of the annual negotiations: the continued standoff between the US and China. The US position is that no new global climate deal is possible before 2020, and it will not begin talks until China, India, and other large emerging economies agree to be equally bound by any legal agreement. In the meantime, US negotiators say, countries should focus on the voluntary emissions-cutting agreement reached in 2010. China maintains that due to its rapid economic growth, it can’t be bound by the same emissions standards as advanced industrialized nations, although the country is willing to enter a legally binding agreement at the end of the decade when current, voluntary programs expire.