12/01/11 12:34pm

Article By: Marty Niland

Negotiators from the European Union are holding out hope that China will agree on a path to binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa.

Without such a framework, the EU has said it will not extend its commitments to the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement among some industrialized nations for mandatory cuts, after the deal expires next year. China, meanwhile, is calling for all nations covered by Kyoto to extend it, while opposing mandatory cuts for developing nations like itself.

However, Bloomberg reports that negotiators for the EU are seeking “common ground” with China. “There’s room for compromise and we hope there will be willingness,” said Isaac Valero-Ladron, an EU spokesman. “China and other countries say that they are not ready to adopt binding targets now. We then want them to tell us in Durban when they will be ready to do so. That will allow us to extend our Kyoto goals and agree the details of the new treaty by 2015.”

Japan, Russian and Canada have said they don't intend to renew their Kyoto commitments, with Canada reportedly ready to pull out of the agreement before the end of the year. The United States never ratified the Kyoto agreement.