China is encouraging President Barack Obama to increase the U.S. offer to reduce carbon emissions, but their top climate envoy is willing to compromise at the upcoming U.N. conference in Copenhagen. Xie Zhenhua expressed China's desire to play a positive role at the climate talks, emphasizing the importance of agreement between the United States and China, who together account for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Xie hopes that President Obama can make a significant contribution to the conference and suggested that China would be open to accepting a target to halve global emissions by 2050 if developed nations commit to more ambitious emissions reductions by 2020 and provide financial assistance to developing countries to combat climate change. The significance of a mid-term target is emphasized over a long-term target, in order to address immediate issues. The deputy chairman of the NDRC expressed the importance of satisfying developing countries' demands before discussing an emissions target to reduce global emissions by 2050. He suggested that rich countries should aim to cut their emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Earlier this year, during earlier rounds of U.N. talks, China had pushed for a reduction of "at least 40 percent." Xie expressed a preference for a final, legally binding agreement to be reached at the Copenhagen meeting, but if that was not feasible, he suggested setting a deadline to finalize a comprehensive treaty by June, which he deemed as very beneficial. He dismissed a U.N. suggestion for fast-track funding of $10 billion annually from 2010-2012 as insufficient.