China dismissed British claims that it had “hijacked” the Copenhagen climate change negotiations as a scheme to sow discord among developing nations, Reuters reported. Ed Miliband, UK secretary of state for energy and climate change, has blamed China, Sudan, Bolivia and other left-wing Latin American nations for the failure to deliver a robust, legally binding deal on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Miliband said China vetoed a widely supported proposal to cut emissions by 50% by 2050. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the remarks were “plainly a political scheme” and that they would come to nothing. Though this spat is unlikely to derail further negotiations aimed at turning the Copenhagen accord into a full treaty, it does underline the distrust that exists between developed and developing nations on climate change.
