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Bishop pushes climate change message

Julie Bishop has headed an international charge to engage China on climate change, while signalling Australia's long-term goals to slash greenhouse gases will be guided by the depth of cuts offered by our big trading partners.

In China to reinvigorate talks about Australia-Sino efforts on climate change, the Foreign Minister said Australia was open to joining an international carbon market even though the Government shunned Labor's carbon tax and emissions trading scheme.

Although the Government has gone to extreme lengths to minimise discussion of climate change at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Ms Bishop held a two-hour meeting with senior Chinese officials to discuss the issue.

Created by former foreign minister Alexander Downer in 2004, the Australia-China "ministerial dialogue on climate change" has been held only six times.

Only the European Union and the US have similar one-on-one climate talks with China.

Ms Bishop talked to Vice-Chairman Xie Zhenhua about developments in both countries to deal with climate change.

The main topic of discussion was next year's meeting of world governments in Paris to determine post-2020 commitments to cut emissions.

Australia has a bipartisan commitment to a 5 per cent cut in 2000-level emissions by 2020 but all nations are under pressure to go much further at Paris.

Ms Bishop revealed Australia's position would be guided by what big emitters and countries such as China and the US pledged.

"We've always said there should be global action," she said. "We want the major emitters to not just talk but to commit.

"I've emphasised we should respect the domestic policies and programs and the economic and political considerations of different countries but we expect everyone to play a fair role."

As part of its Direct Action policy, the Government dropped efforts to link Australia to international carbon trading schemes but Ms Bishop said if a truly global scheme emerged, the Government could be open to Australian participation.