By Joydeep Gupta
Copenhagen, Dec 17 (IANS) The US and China were at loggerheads on the penultimate day of the Copenhagen climate summit, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded that China take more “transparent” actions to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs He Yafei quoted Premier Wen Jiabao to say only those actions financed by rich countries would be open to international scrutiny.

There will be no accord at the climate summit here unless emerging economies take “decisive actions” to combat global warming, that can be “operationalised in an international code” in a “transparent” manner, Clinton said Thursday.

She named China, but appeared to include India, South Africa and Brazil, as she said there must be “standards of transparency that provides credibility to the entire process” of moving towards a treaty to tackle climate change.

India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh quickly reacted: “I agree with her 75 percent, but not fully.”

The bone of contention is the US insistence on international scrutiny of actions taken by developing countries to make their economies greener. China and India have opposed this strongly in the past, saying this was against sovereignty.

At a crowded press conference on the penultimate day of the Dec 7-18 climate summit, Clinton made a “transparency mechanism” the condition both for an accord and for the $100 billion a year fund she promised to put together by 2020 to help poor countries cope with climate change effects.

“The agreement has interlocking pieces that must go together,” she said. “No commitment to transparency is a deal breaker.”

Asked if she expected China to change its stance and allow international scrutiny of its domestic actions, Clinton said unless China took steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and did so in a manner transparent to the international community, the $100 billion fund she had promised would not be forthcoming.

The Chinese government reacted swiftly, with He quoting Premier Wen to say his country would stick to the Bali Action Plan, under which “only those (greenhouse gas emission) mitigation actions that are supported internationally will be subject to MRV (measurable, reportable, verifiable) scrutiny.”

“Our voluntary actions should not be subjected to this,” He quoted Wen as saying. “That doesn’t mean we’re afraid of supervision, inspection or monitoring. But it’s a matter of principle, that of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ (of developed and developing countries) as per the Bali Action Plan.”

Pointing out that in climate negotiations “mutual trust is very important”, He said: “China’s mitigation actions will be fully guaranteed legally at the domestic level. Premier Wen has promised to make these actions transparent, and they will be implemented under monitoring of law.”

In words echoing the Indian position on the subject, China’s vice minister also said his country was willing to “enhance and improve our national communications to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and we’re to provide explanations and clarifications”.

Going a step further, He said China could “consider international exchange, dialogue and cooperation that’s not intrusive or does not infringe sovereignty”.

China attacked the rich countries in its turn, pointing out that they had not met their commitments to reduce their own emissions, “while they are saying developing countries are not committing enough. And they are linking the two. That’s not the way forward,” He said.