Push for climate deal hinges on U.S., China

The United States, China and India could scuttle attempts to save the only treaty governing global warming, Europe's top negotiator said Friday hours before a 194-nation U.N. climate conference was to close.

After two weeks of negotiations, talks went through the night Thursday with delegates struggling to keep Durban from becoming the graveyard of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

"If there is no further movement from what I have seen until 4 o'clock this morning, then I must say I don't think that there will be a deal in Durban," said Connie Hedegaard, the European commissioner for climate action.

The proposed package would see the European Union extend its commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, but only if all other countries agree to negotiate a new treaty with legally binding obligations for everyone, not just the wealthy Kyoto group.

The EU has said it will not renew its emissions reduction pledges, which expire in one year, without agreement to begin work on a treaty to replace the Kyoto accord that would compel all countries to control their emissions, including the United States and China, which are the world's two largest polluters. The U.S. never ratified the protocol, though it has made voluntary efforts to reduce emissions.

The Europeans won critical support late Thursday from an alliance of small islands and the world's poorest countries — about 120 nations altogether — for its proposal to start negotiations now on a deal to take effect in 2018 or possibly after 2020. Brazil and South Africa also said they would accept binding emissions limits under a new agreement. The two countries are among the countries in the so-called developing world that emit the most greenhouse gases.

Ministers or senior negotiators from 28 countries then worked late through the night to try to bring the U.S., China and India on board.

Hedegaard said the three countries are still not on board and could scuttle the deal.

A man dressed as a tree holds a fake U.S. dollar note as he protests during a climate change conference in Durban, Dec. 8. Schalk van Zuydam/AP Photo Both China and the U.S. have said they would be amenable to the EU proposal to negotiate a post-2020 agreement, but each attached riders that appeared to hobble prospects for unanimous acceptance.

Canada has said it is prepared to sign a comprehensive treaty as early as 2015 but will not be part of any extension of the Kyoto approach to cutting carbon emissions.

The United States, whose Congress is generally seen as hostile on the climate issue, is concerned about conceding any competitive business advantage to China. Beijing, too, is resisting the notion that it has become a developed country on par with the U.S. or Europe, saying it still has hundreds of millions of impoverished people.

Rich countries are legally bound to reduce carbon emissions while developing countries take voluntary actions.

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TMX sets up shop in China

The company that owns the Toronto Stock Exchange has opened an office in Beijing to help it convince more Chinese companies to list on Canada's largest stock exchange.

"We're pleased to continue [our] global expansion by opening an office in this important region," TMX Corp. president Tom Kloet said as the Beijing office was formally opened on Monday. "Opening an office in Beijing underscores our commitment to ensuring that the benefits of the Canadian capital markets are well understood around the world."

More than half of the world's publicly traded mining companies are listed in Toronto, as are more than a third of the world's public oil and gas names. China's booming economy has an insatiable appetite for resources at the moment, so just as Chinese firms are investing heavily in Canadian companies, the stock exchange is hoping more and more Chinese resource companies will want access to Canada's resource-savvy capital markets by listing on the TSX.

Earlier this year, TMX Corp. opened an office in London, England. That move was part of the company's overall objective of furthering its international profile and presence. Access to new European markets and investors was a centrepiece of the proposed merger of TMX Corp and the London Stock Exchange before that deal fell apart.

But setting up shop in China is the TMX's attempt to link up with an economy that's growing a lot faster than the traditional markets in Europe. TMX said in a release that the company's efforts in China will focus primarily on advancing Canada's capital markets and TMX's stock exchanges. The office will also provide the ability to offer enhanced services to new and existing clients in China.

In recent months, Chinese companies have come under increased scrutiny for their accounting practices after several accounting irregularities came to light.

Sino-Forest was once the most valuable forestry firm on the TSX until a report from short seller Muddy Waters alleged the company had misstated its assets. The company is currently under investigation by the OSC and trading in the shares is frozen.

There are already several dozen China-based companies that list on the TSX, but TMX Corp. is eager to see that figure climb even higher.

"The opening of the TSX office in Beijing demonstrates the opportunities that Canadian businesses see to further their relationship with the People's Republic of China," said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who was on hand for the opening. "It creates an important bridge between our respective capital markets and brings our market participants closer together."

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