A LOOMING showdown between the US and China dominated the Copenhagen climate change negotiations even as John Kerry tried to defuse tensions by guaranteeing to get climate change laws through the US Congress.

In a heavily attended speech, Kerry, who is leading the effort to get a climate change bill through the Senate, said he was confident of success if countries at Copenhagen managed to cut a deal.

“With a successful deal here in Copenhagen, next year, the US Congress — House and Senate — will pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that will reduce America's emissions,” Kerry said to applause.

The unconditional promise from the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee went some distance to allaying fears that Barack Obama would not be able to deliver on his pledge to cut US emissions.

The uncertainty about whether America is really prepared to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, and by how much, has crippled the negotiations. It has allowed developing countries such as China and India, which will be the big polluters of the future, to stall on committing to their own action, and has bred distrust and resentment from the African and poor countries that will suffer the most from climate change.

Obama said last month he would offer a cut of 17 per cent from 2005 figures by 2020 but it was contingent on legislation going through Congress. Kerry did not allow for any doubts, and said climate change proposals were picking up support in the Senate and in the business world.

But he offered one key caveat America would not sign on to a deal at Copenhagen — or pass a climate change deal in Congress — unless China and other developing countries meet its demand for accountability on their emissions cuts.

“In the Senate and in America, the concerns that kept us out of Kyoto back in 1997 are still with us today, and we need to pre-empt them here in Copenhagen,” Kerry warned. “To pass a bill, we must be able to assure a Senator from Ohio that steelworkers in his state won't lose their jobs to India and China because those countries are not participating in a way that is measureable, reportable and verifiable.”

India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, was, however, unimpressed by the rhetoric. He argues India is already showing transparency via its domestic legislation. He said a strong offer on finance would go a greater distance towards easing the resentment of developing countries that America's emissions cuts are lagging behind other developed countries.

“If the US comes up with a generous financial offer, the chemistry of Copenhagen would entirely change,” Ramesh told The Guardian. “If the US puts a generous financial offer on the table it can completely change the atmosphere but they can't do it on Friday morning when Obama gets here. They must change the atmosphere now.”

Kerry's appearance ramps up a grand showdown between America and the developing world, led by China. Other high-level American public officials at Copenhagen have been focused on playing up Barack Obama's commitment to greening the economy. Half a dozen administration officials have rolled out new initiatives in clean energy technology in America as well as the developing world.

— The Guardian, London