Chinese proposal to meter internet traffic

China wants to meter all internet traffic that passes through its borders, it has emerged.

The move would require international agreement - but it is being discussed by the United Nations body in charge of internet standards.

It would allow countries which currently receive no payment for use of their lines to generate income.

But an EU cyber security expert has warned the plan could threaten the stability of the entire internet.

Andrea Servida, of the European Commission, told a House of Lords committee that China could have a "hidden agenda" in wanting to monitor data flows.

And, in later comments to BBC News, he suggested technical changes needed to charge everyone for internet traffic flowing through China could undermine the web's founding principle of openness as well as raising security and stability concerns for all net users.

Developing countries

But the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN internet standards body, firmly rejected his claims saying it was "not clear" how introducing tariffs could threaten internet security or stability.

The ITU also stressed that the Chinese proposal did not involve modifying the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) - one of the core specifications that controls how data flows around the internet - as Mr Servida has alleged.

An ITU spokesman said: "The ITU has no plans to modify the BGP protocol, which is not an ITU-T standard.

"A proposal has been made, and is being studied, to use BGP routers to collect traffic flow data, which could be used, by bilateral agreement, by operators for billing purposes."

The spokesman said discussions about international internet tariffs had been taking place for the past 10 years and the Chinese proposal was one of many ideas of being studied by ITU working parties.

"We would have welcomed EU participation in the discussion and it's regrettable that the UK Parliamentary committee has been misled in this way," added the ITU spokesman.

But Mr Servida said that as far as the European Commission was concerned the Chinese proposal was "ambiguous" about whether it would involve installing BGP routers or modifying the BGP protocol itself.

And he told BBC News the European Commission's concerns were shared by other delegations at the ITU.

He said that because the BGP protocol is an Internet Engineering Task Force standard and not controlled by the ITU "the involvement of ITU in this specific matter is highly questionable and alarming".

"It indicates a clear intention to introduce higher government control of a critical internet function through what may appear to be a purely technological discussion," he added.

'Security roadmap'

The ITU firmly rejected this claim and insisted that it had involved the wider internet industry in its discussions - with several experts being invited to contribute to the most recent talks on introducing tariffs, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, in September this year.

"There have not been any proposals to introduce 'higher government control of a critical internet function'," an ITU spokesman told the BBC.

Mr Servida, who stressed he was speaking in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the European Commission, said it was "certainly worth engaging in a discussion on tariffs for international internet" - but he suggested China could have ulterior motives for wanting to monitor "packets" of data flowing around the internet and that it could "establish a 'de facto' legitimacy for someone to have a closer look at internet data flows".

China's proposal is understood to have the backing of a number of developing countries, who currently have to bear the cost of international internet connections.

At the moment, when countries install internet circuits, they have to choose between a "peer-to-peer" system for connections with other countries, in which no money changes hands but the traffic flow between the two countries balances out, or an asymmetrical system, where they have to pay the full cost of the connection.

It is understood that the Chinese proposal would see countries reaching a commercial agreement when internet connections are established, including possible compensation for traffic flow and number of routes.

Mr Servida, deputy head of unit at the European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate General, is one of the authors of an EU plan to protect all 27 member states from large scale cyber attacks and disruption, which is expected to come into force some time after 2011.

The Commission is also working on proposals for international standards for internet security and resilience.

Mr Servida said: "Our target is to develop a roadmap for international cooperation on principles and guidelines for security and resilience by the beginning of 2010."

The proposals would be presented to the EU's international partners at the UN-run Internet Governance Forum and elsewhere at the end of next year, he added.

Mr Servida raised his concerns about China earlier this month when he gave evidence to the House of Lords EU home affairs subcommittee, which is investigating cyber-security.

He cast doubt on the idea that is was possible to "take down" the entire global internet, but added: "Regionally you may have strong disruption and that goes for any region."

He also spoke of the need to reach out to nations who "feel they have legitimate grounds to think of the internet as a kind of private garden" and involve them in international cyber security efforts.

China's laws restricting internet access had been brought in to "protect Chinese citizens" and so were hard to argue against, he told the committee, but the country was now working on technical and trade barriers which would be "bad" for all net users.

"Fencing the internet is not going to help anybody," he told the committee.

Sarkozy backs calls to keep Kyoto

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has backed calls by developing nations to keep the Kyoto Protocol, which only requires rich nations to cut emissions.

Speaking in Copenhagen, he broke away from the EU position of favouring a new deal that saw all nations commit to measures to curb climate change.

Elsewhere, the US and China have been at loggerheads over binding targets.

With one day remaining, observers say the climate summit is unlikely to deliver a meaningful deal.

The Danish presidency of the climate summit in Copenhagen has sought to play down expectations of a comprehensive deal emerging from the meeting.

The hosts had to drop plans to propose new draft texts on Thursday after opposition from many developing nations, which saw the talks grind to a halt on Wednesday.

Officials said progress could be made, but an international agreement may have to wait until a 2010 meeting in Mexico.

In his address to delegates, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy called on nations to "stop posturing".

"A failure in Copenhagen would be a catastrophe for each and everyone of us," he said. "If we keep on heading where we're going, we are heading for failure."

"So people want to keep Kyoto, OK let's keep Kyoto. But let us agree on an overall political umbrella," he stated.

The French president went on to urge ministers and leaders to adopt a full climate treaty in June 2010.

"Let's give ourselves six months after the Copenhagen conference to transform political commitments into a legal text."

Money on offer

Eariler, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the meeting her country was prepared to work towards mobilising $100bn a year for developing countries.

She told delegates: "In the context of a strong accord in which all major economies pledge meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to those actions, the US is prepared to work with other countries towards a goal of mobilising $100bn a year to address the needs of developing countries."

She made it clear - as did Japan on Wednesday when announcing a specific figure for assistance - that the money was contingent on reaching a global deal here that met its criteria.

BBC environment correspondent Richard Black said developing countries are likely to point out that there is no figure for what the US is prepared to provide itself, either from public or private finance.

The sum is also less than the amount that UN agencies such as the World Bank and International Energy Agency calculates is necessary to help mitigation and adaptation in the developing world.

But transparency has emerged as a major sticking point for the US. It has been calling on some developing countries, including China and India, to open their emissions controls to international scrutiny.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said China had to give ground on the US demand for transparency.

China says it is willing to provide information about its measures to reduce emissions, reports the AP news agency.

Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei is quoted as saying that China is ready for "dialogue and co-operation that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China's sovereignty".

New alliance?

Addressing the summit on Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he feared "a triumph of form over substance" at the outcome of the UN climate summit.

In his speech, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, meanwhile, urged the summit to "summon up the greatest level of ambition".

"The success of our endeavours depends on us forging a new alliance," he told delegates.

He added: "In these few days in Copenhagen which will be blessed or blamed for generations to come, we cannot permit the politics of narrow self-interest to prevent a policy for human survival."

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN's climate body, told reporters that negotiators would consider two negotiating texts; one looking at further emission cuts by developed nations (except the US) by 2020, and another that looks at committing all nations to curbing climate change.

Mr de Boer added that the texts would be considered by two working groups, which were expected to report back to the main conference on Thursday evening.

Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in climate change at the International Institute for Environment and Development, told BBC News: "The negotiation process is in a high state of confusion."

"On the other hand, heads of state are arriving and talking to each other, and within hours every important decision-maker on the planet will be in the same town at the same time.

"If they can't do it, no-one can - and I think that they will."

India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh said a "blame game" had already begun because of the slow progress towards a deal.

Containing emissions to a level associated with a temperature rise of no more than 2C is the stated aim of the big nations here.

As things are going they will miss that target by a considerable margin, our correspondent says.

The poorest and most vulnerable nations say emissions should be contained to a level associated with a temperature rise of 1 or 1.5C.