China said Tuesday it will set an absolute cap on its CO2 emissions starting in 2016 — a potentially landmark move that, coupled with an earlier U.S. announcement on power plant emission curbs , could boost sluggish United Nations efforts to produce a new global climate accord. The exact extent of the cuts was not announced, but officials said renewable energy would account for up to 25 percent of the country’s energy production and nuclear power would be ramped up by the end of the next decade. “The Chinese announcement marks potentially the most important turning point in the global scene on climate change for a decade,” said Michael Grubb, a professor of international energy and climate policy at University College London. The international community hopes to conclude a global climate treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2015, when the United Nations will host a climate conference in […]