Miliband: China is ready to set air quality targets

Ed Miliband, the UK's secretary for climate change, has claimed that China is on the brink of agreeing to official carbon reduction strategies.

The news comes after the secretary met Chinese senior officials in Beijing this week, the Telegraph reports.

Mr Miliband said that a similar commitment made in the US by the Obama administration to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 is a definite encouragement to other nations.

He stated: "I got the real sense that the Chinese are ready for an agreement. I'm coming away from discussions rather optimistic. I think the Chinese want a deal at Copenhagen in December."

According to Mr Miliband, the Chinese government has shed its previous perception of western nations being the primary polluters and is ready to accept responsibility for its own actions when it comes to air quality and climate change.

Pollution reduction has been a prominent subject in China of late - following the Olympic Games last August, city officials have decided to permanently adopt a system which only allows cars with certain number plates into Beijing's centre on chosen days.