China to announce cap on carbon emissions

U.S. administration officials say China will announce plans Friday to launch a national system to limit greenhouse gases and force industries to purchase pollution credits.

The officials say Beijing plans to put the system known as cap-and-trade into place in 2017 as part of measures aimed to address climate change in cooperation with the U.S. and others.

A statement to be released after Friday's summit between President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping aims to flesh out how their two countries plan to achieve emission-cutting targets set at a bilateral summit in Beijing last year.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity so they wouldn't pre-empt China's official announcement, say it's hoped the announcement will give impetus to a broader global treaty on climate change in December.

The announcement will also cover components of the cap-and-trade strategy, including the individual sectors covered under the plan, which range from power production to papermaking, the officials said. Those sectors produce "a substantial percentage of China's climate pollution," one official said.

Lu Kong, the spokesman for Xi's delegation, declined to discuss the joint statement on Thursday night but said, "Maybe this time we could make further progress in demonstrating to the outside world at large that China and the U.S. are committed to further efforts in dealing with climate change in a comprehensive way.”

Cap-and-trade sets an annual limit on the amount of pollution that may be produced, then requires firms to obtain permission to pollute by purchasing credits from less polluting industries.

In November at last year's summit, Obama announced that the U.S. would move much faster in cutting pollution, with a goal to reduce it 26 percent to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. Earlier he set a goal to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020.

Last year Xi, whose country's emissions are still growing as it builds new coal plants, didn't commit to cut emissions by a specific amount. Rather, he set a target for China's emissions to peak by 2030 or earlier if possible. He also pledged to increase the share of energy that China will derive from sources other than fossil fuels, such as solar and wind.

Critics have questioned whether the goals are realistic.

Al Jazeera and wire services