ENVIRONMENT Minister Greg Hunt has attacked as hypocritical Labor’s demand that the government drop its ambition for a legally binding climate treaty, as Australia demands developing countries adopt more onerous obligations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in the Peruvian ­capital, Lima, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday urged the vice-chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, to do more to tackle emissions reductions.

Ms Bishop plans to tell the conference today that the binary definition of developed and ­developing countries “is misleading and doesn’t lead to best outcomes’’ in combating climate change “because the divide is ­arbitrary”.

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Australia, Germany and France are pressing for a legally enforceable emissions reduction target, although some countries including the US and China are resisting.

“We have to balance whether we would rather have those countries at the signing table or will we insist on the agreement being legally binding,” Ms Bishop told ABC Radio today, without naming any particular foreign governments.

Mr Hunt would not pre-empt the outcome of the talks, but told The Australian “the best protection would be to have legally binding commitments so countries don’t make idle promises”.

Opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler has described the debate over legal enforceability as “a red herring” that the government is using as a “distraction for their woeful and embarrassing record on climate change”.

“Labor wants the Abbott Government be a constructive participant in the negotiations in Lima in the national interest, not Tony Abbott’s political interests,” Mr Butler said today.

The Greens argue the Abbott government’s claim is designed to destroy the climate talks, since the government knows the US congress is unlikely to ratify a binding target.

Mr Hunt told The Australian this morning: “It’s very interesting because Labor and the Greens demanded we commit to a binding agreement last time, so they’ll just say the opposite of whatever the government’s position is.

“They demanded that we ratify (the Kyoto Protocol) and they said it was an outrage, even though we were meeting the targets, if we didn’t.

“If they want a loose, non-binding system that can allow people to make idle pledges, that’s a matter for them and they should explain their position.”

Under existing global climate change agreements, developed countries are subject to emissions reduction commitments while developing countries are subject to less stringent conditions.

The obligations of developed countries compared with developing countries have been a past source of disagreement at climate talks, with developing countries arguing their industrial progress should not be curtailed because of problems caused by historical emissions from industrialised countries. Australia will today tell the Lima conference that it is on track to meet its target of cutting carbon emissions by five per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 through its Direct Action abatement plan. And Ms Bishop will reveal that Australia will release its emissions reduction targets beyond 2020 in the first half of next year.

Speaking from Lima, Ms ­Bishop said Mr Xie had told her China intended to reach a peak in its emissions by 2030 — in line with the pact it signed with the US last month — and that the nation was looking at its energy mix.

“He said they were intending to put in place a direct action plan,’’ she said.

Ms Bishop said China had the advantage of being able to leapfrog energy technologies, moving straight to modern technologies such as renewable ­energy or clean coal rather than having to start with coal-fired steam turbines.

“I believe the ­notion of saying that China is a developing country has had its day in relation to climate change,’’ she said.

A similar argument applied to India. As India’s economy grew, it would dwarf the size of other economies.

“As its emissions ­increase, it has a responsibility to seek to curb them,’’ the Foreign Minister said.

This week’s climate change conference in Lima is a precursor to next year’s crucial conference in Paris, which the UN hopes will achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate and emissions reduction.

China and the US last month sought to provide some momentum to the talks by clinching a climate change deal under which China agreed to peak its emissions by 2030 and use 20 per cent renewable energy.

However, Ms Bishop has criticised the commitment as business as usual rather than a reduction target.