Government and Policy

China urges balanced way to tackle climate change

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-04 15:41

TIANJIN - China on Monday said developing countries' right to development must be guaranteed in order to achieve a positive progress in tackling with climate change problems.

As a developing country which is experiencing rapid growth, China will continue to fulfill its due responsibilities in reducing greenhouse gases emissions, said Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo.

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While addressing a new round of UN climate talks which opened Monday in North China's Tianjin municipality, Dai said the principle of sustainable development must be followed.

"Economic development, poverty alleviation and climate protection should be considered in a coordinated way in order to achieve a win-win result between achieving development and dealing with climate change," Dai said.

He suggested the negotiations should stick to the basic framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol and the mandate of the Bali Roadmap and follow the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities."

The developed countries should set the targets to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and arrangements should be made to provide adequate financial and technological support to developing countries, he said.

"All countries should consolidate and enlarge the common ground (on climate change issues) so as to actively push forward the talks and reach a legally binding agreement at an early date," Dai told some 3,000 delegates from party and observer countries under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

He said the UN climate talks had entered a critical stage and the Tianjin meeting should make positive progress in order to pave the way for the year-end Cancun summit in Mexico.

As a responsible developing country, China will continue to play an active and constructive role in the climate talks, Dai said.

He stressed China, as a country of 1.3 billion people with per capita GDP ranking about 100th in the world, faces the serious task of growing the economy and improving people's livelihood.

"At a stage of accelerated industrialization and urbanization, China's energy demand will see further reasonable growth. Therefore, we face significant constraints in controlling greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

The Chinese government made clear-cut goals before the Copenhagen climate talks in late 2009, including cutting the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent, compared with 2005 levels.

China also said it would increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 15 percent and have 40 million more hectares of forest by 2020.

Last December, the UN climate change conference was held in Denmark  and adopted the Copenhagen Accord -- a non-binding document.

The Tianjin talks, scheduled to run from Oct 4 to 9, is the final meeting before the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Cancun at the end of this year.