Singapore, a Southeast Asian city-state with high per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases, will pledge to slash those emissions by 16% by 2020 versus current levels, local media reported today.

This is the target Singapore will put on the table at talks in Copenhagen starting next week aimed at agreeing a broader climate pact to combat global warming, local press quoted a government minister as saying.

“Ours is a substantial commitment that will require a major effort, bearing in mind our severe constraints,” the newspaper quoted the government’s Coordinating Minister for National Security, S Jayakumar, as telling local media yesterday.

China and other big developing nations rejected core targets for a climate deal such as halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 just days before the Copenhagen talks start, diplomats said yesterday.

The dispute underscores a rich-poor rift which has haunted the two-year talks to agree a new global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2013 and dampens hopes of rescuing the December 7-18 Copenhagen summit.

A legally binding target is already out of reach for the UN talks, with only a political deal possible.

Jayakumar said that Singapore’s commitment was dependent on a legally-binding deal being reached after the Copenhagen talks, and that other countries needed to put forward significant targets to cut carbon emissions.

He said Singapore’s emissions accounted for less than 0.2% of the world’s total. As an oil refining and manufacturing hub, its per capita emissions are high.

The country, a low-lying group of islands at risk of rising sea levels, seeks to cut emissions through increased use of public transport, improved fuel efficiency, biofuels and electric vehicles.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that given the country’s small size and dense population, 16% was a “stretch target” but achievable, the local press said.