Members of the "Freedom from Debt Coalition" hold placards during a protest in front of the World Bank offices in Manila yesterday. The group claims that the World Bank has no right to participate in climate financing because of its history of climate change-inducing projects that accelerated impacts of climate change. Photo: AFP

China said rich nations must vow greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and warned of lost trust in talks over a climate change deal, while rich countries accused Beijing of under cutting progress.
Feuding yesterday over the future of a key UN treaty on fighting climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, has diluted hopes that negotiations in the Chinese city of Tianjin can lay a firm base for agreeing on a new, binding climate deal next year.
The weeklong talks end today and are the last before a high-level meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in less than two months.
Kyoto's first phase ends in 2012 and what happens after that is in contention, with rich and poor countries disagreeing over whether Kyoto should be extended or replaced with a new treaty that covers all big greenhouse gas polluting nations.
In a sometimes combative meeting of hundreds of negotiators, Huang Huikang, China's Special Representative for Climate Change Negotiations, said negotiators were losing trust in each other.
"Today here in Tianjin we really need to rebuild trust and confidence. We are losing confidence and trust," Huang said.
"We are all concerned about the slow status of our negotiations."
The United Nations is worried the talks will stall and create a gap in application from 2013 which could halt Kyoto's $20.6 billion carbon market.
Beijing wants to keep Kyoto and its firm division between the duties of rich economies and poorer ones, including China.
Washington and other rich nations want a new pact to reflect the surge in emissions from the developing world, now accounting for more than half of annual global greenhouse gas pollution.