China plans absolute CO2 cap from 2016

BEIJING - China, the world's biggest emitter of climate-changing greenhouse gases, will set an absolute cap on its CO2 emissions from 2016, a top government adviser said on Tuesday.

The target will be written into China's next five-year plan, which comes into force in 2016, He Jiankun, chairman of China's Advisory Committee on Climate Change, told a conference in Beijing.

"The government will use two ways to control CO2 emissions in the next five-year plan, by intensity and an absolute cap,"he said.

The move will be the first time China puts absolute limits on its CO2 emissions, which have soared 50 per cent since 2005.

His statement comes the day after the United States, the world's second-biggest emitter, for the first time announced plans to rein in carbon emissions from its power sector, a move the Obama administration hopes can inject ambition into slow-moving international climate talks.