The global economic crisis will not be the only item high on agenda when President Hu Jintao meets his US counterpart Barack Obama for the first time next month - green issues will also figure prominently.

The two are scheduled to meet at the G20 summit in London in early April.

"I think President Hu will touch on climate change when he meets Obama," Qin Dahe, a scientist on the government's expert panel on climate change, told China Daily on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Qin, also a CPPCC member, said China and the US - the two biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in the world - should strengthen cooperation and that only through such cooperation can the two countries fight global warming.

A source involved in the preparatory work for Hu's visit to London confirmed that climate change will be a topic of discussion between China and the US. A special governmental panel is working out the details of the climate change discussion.

"China will send several teams to the US to prepare for the meeting between the two presidents. The team on climate change will leave next week," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The source added that the two countries will also look at green issues for opportunities in industrial development as a way out of the financial meltdown that has already put several economic powerhouses in recession.

Qin said it is encouraging that the Obama administration places energy conservation and emission cuts high on its list of priorities. He urged the Obama administration to work out a carbon dioxide reduction plan in line with global regulation and pacts.

"The US and the EU are hotly discussing their emission control agenda for 2020 and 2050 but I think, the most important thing is to start from now," Qin said.

He said that even though China is a developing country, its energy conservation plan for 2006-10, which seeks to cut per unit energy consumption by 20 percent, has achieved initial success.

"No other developing country has such clear goals in energy savings. It shows that we are taking action and not just paying lip service (to curbing greenhouse gas emissions)," Qin said.

Following the central government's plan to battle global warming, Qin said, several provinces have worked out their respective programs to deal with climate change.

Qin said China's research for its next five-year economic plan (2011-16) will consider stricter energy conservation targets. "We will continuously and strictly save energy and cut pollutants in the future," Qin said.

(China Daily March 13, 2009)