(Reuters) -The European Union is holding back on signing a joint climate action pledge with China at a summit this month to mark a half-century of diplomatic ties, a top climate official told the Financial Times in remarks published on Monday.
The EU's climate targets are among the world's most ambitious, but they have been based entirely on domestic emissions cuts. Now the bloc faces a mid-September deadline to submit a new 2035 climate target to the United Nations.
Brussels has refused Beijing's repeated requests for a mutual climate commitment after the summit of the world's second- and third-largest economies, unless China promises to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions, EU officials said.
"There is only merit in having a declaration from our perspective if there are also content nuts to be cracked and ambition to be displayed," Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told the paper.
China has always been actively promoting green and low-carbon development, a foreign ministry spokesperson said in response to the comments.
"We will continue to work with other countries to strengthen international cooperation on climate change, and contribute to the green transformation and sustainable development of humankind," the spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular briefing.
China, which has been struggling to strike a balance between fostering economic growth and reaching environmental goals, is expected to miss a five-year goal for an 18% cut in carbon intensity by the end of this year.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report, and the European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru, Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Tom Hogue and Clarence Fernandez)
