Chinese Ransom

“China was under intense diplomatic pressure last night to abandon key demands which risk scuppering an international treaty on climate change in Copenhagen. Today President Barack Obama is due to arrive in the Danish capital after Hillary Clinton electrified the faltering conference by announcing that America would back the setting-up of a climate fund for poor countries which would have $100bn to give away annually by 2020. But at the same time she issued a blunt challenge to China, which has now overtaken the US as the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, to allow its promised emissions cuts to be internationally verified – something the Chinese have been stubbornly resisting. For the Chinese not to accept ‘transparency’ – independent verification – was a ‘deal breaker’ for the US, Mrs Clinton openly said, which would see the $100bn offer disappear.”