LONDON (Reuters) - China, India, Brazil and South Africa oppose setting a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at a Copenhagen climate conference starting next week, European diplomats said on Wednesday.
A document by the four big developing nations also said they opposed setting a goal of a global peak in emissions by 2020 and a target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, they said.
"The paper is defensive. It lays out the red lines for those emerging economies," one European diplomat with knowledge of the paper's contents told Reuters.
They said the paper complicates preparations for the December 7-18 conference in Denmark. Many developed nations back the targets rejected by the four nations as part of a "shared vision" of common principles for combating global warming.
"They don't want any figures under the heading of a shared vision in the Copenhagen draft," a second diplomat said.
"They say they can't accept two degrees, global peaking in 2020 and 50 percent (by 2050) compared to 1990 levels," a diplomat said. China is the world's top emitter ahead of the United States, with India fourth behind Russia.
China and India have in the past insisted that developed nations, which have grown rich by burning fossil fuels, must make far deeper cuts in their own emissions by 2020 before expecting the poor to sign up for curbs.
They want the rich, for instance, to cut emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. A plan by President Barack Obama would cut U.S. emissions by 3 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 while the European Union aims for at least 20, at most 30.
"The EU is scratching its head over this at the moment. None of these countries seem willing to explain or justify their positions to the EU or U.S.," a second diplomat said.
(Editing by Charles Dick)
