US, China Near Secret Climate Deal

Top US officials secretly visited China late last year to negotiate a joint climate change agreement, the Guardian reports. Hosting the talks in a hotel in the Great Wall of China, China sought cooperation on carbon capture and storage, and other green technologies. "There are these two countries that the world blames for doing nothing, and they have a better story to tell," said one US negotiator.

A US proposal, agreed to by the Chinese, would:

• Make a 20% cut in carbon emissions using existing technologies by 2010.
• Create new technologies to capture and store carbon, and improve car fuel efficiency.
• Strike a deal before the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.

A Chinese official visited Washington in December to ink the agreement, but sources say the Obama administration wasn't ready yet.
(More China stories.)