President Hu of China threw his country's weight behind the campaign to fight climate change today when he promised to reduce the carbon intensity of his country's economic growth.

Mr Hu, addressing a UN summit shortly after an appearance by President Obama, said that China would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced for each dollar of national economic output by a “notable margin” by 2020 from 2005 levels. He gave no specific "carbon intensity" targets.

The pledge from China, the world’s biggest emitter, fell short of an absolute cap on output and was seen as an attempt to counter critics who say Beijing is not doing enough.

Mr Hu’s offer could also put pressure on the United States and other major emitters to kickstart stalled talks on the new Copenhagen framework.

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"The world expects us to make a decision in the face of climate change, an issue which bears on mankind’s survival and development," Mr Hu said.

China appears, however, to have chosen a carbon control measure to its own advantage however.

It is responsible for more than 20 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, ahead of the United States or the European Union, but the inefficiencies of its industrial sector means its ratio of GDP, in dollar terms, to carbon emissions is officially one of the world's lowest.

Added to that, many in the West complain that China's economic growth has been on the back of a deliberately devalued currency. If that currency is revalued, then China's carbon intensity would – again in dollar terms – be reduced.

UN and IMF figures from 2004 suggest that China produces one tonne of carbon dioxide for each $450 of GDP output, less efficient even than Vietnam. For Britain and Japan, by comparison, the figure was about one tonne per $3,600 of economic activity.

Mr Hu repeated China’s call on developed countries to support the developing world with financial help and green technology to fight global warming. China has earmarked a carbon target for inclusion in its still unpublished blueprint for economic development between 2011 and 2015.

Beijing’s worries about energy security and severe pollution have already prompted the introduction of an energy intensity target from 2006. A carbon target should speed up a planned boost in renewables like wind and hydropower.

Mr Hu said that China aimed to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption to about 15 percent by 2020, and to significantly increase forest cover to absorb carbon.

Mr Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, broke with the international consensus and dismissed the Kyoto treaty, which the United States signed but never ratified.

Since he came into office in January Mr Obama has sharply shifted course and declared climate change to be a priority. In today's speech, his first address from a UN platform, he echoed Mr Ban's warning on the need for urgency but had little to offer by way of concrete initiatives.

"Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history, for if we fail to meet it – boldly, swiftly, and together – we risk consigning future generations to an irreversible catastrophe," he said.

Earlier Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, called for the pace of negotiations to be stepped up before the Copenhagen summit in December.

"Failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise," Mr Ban said.

"We cannot go down this road. If we have learnt anything from the crises of the past year, it is that our fates are intertwined."

About 100 world leaders have joined the summit – the highest-level conference on climate change ever held.

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