International Oversight
"Very few paragraphs" have changed, Bolivia's Solon said.
Developing nations, including China, can't accept the kind of stringent international oversight of their efforts to cut domestic emissions that developed countries demanded at Copenhagen, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Reform Development Commission of China, China's top economic planner, said earlier in the week.
China's greenhouse gas emissions are unlikely to peak before its per capita GDP reached $40,000, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing Xie Zhenhua, the country's top climate change official.
China's current per capita GDP just exceeds $3,000, the news agency said. Developed countries with per capita GDP of more than $40,000 are still increasing greenhouse gas emissions, Xie said, according to Xinhua.
Instead, the U.S. and developed nations should focus on raising their emissions targets, Su Wei, China's chief negotiator on climate change, said yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse.
The U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, have been deadlocked over issues including pollution-reduction goals and verification of emissions cuts.
Pershing said the U.S. was trying to reach a compromise with developing nations on monitoring, reporting and verification with less stringent requirements for poorer countries. More advanced countries like China should accept a higher standard, he said.
Transparency
"There's no question for Brazil, for an India or for a China that they could implement an MRV program and be transparent," Pershing said. "It makes sense for countries with the capacity, who make major contributions to emissions globally and have resources to implement programs."
Negotiations aren't progressing as nations stick to a line of division between developing and developed countries that no longer makes sense, the U.S. negotiator said. Some issues are being "re-litigated" that were supposed to be resolved at Copenhagen, he said, without giving details.
"My own view is that it could work, but it's going to require a bit more fruitful discussion than we've had the last few days," he said.