China's top climate official said that the country will present its post-2020 goals for coping with climate change ahead of schedule.

Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation at the United Nations climate change talks in Lima, Peru, said that China will announce its "intended nationally determined contribution (INDC)" in the first quarter rather than in June 2015.

Goals to markedly reduce carbon intensity and boost forest conservation will be included in the package.

At the South-South Cooperation on Climate Change Forum on Monday, Xie said China will "try our best to peak earlier. As a developing country, China will try our best to cooperate with other developing nations to actively to tackle climate change."

China has announced it will establish a South-South Cooperation Fund to help developing countries address climate change, and, starting next year, double aid to developing countries.

"It's a very good initiative that we've very much welcomed," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"Inspired by the leadership of China," Figueres said the Secretariat of the UNFCCC is going to open up a South-South Fund that will mainly focus on adaptation-knowledge sharing.

Eight ministers from developing countries such as Egypt and Gabon and senior representatives of development agencies and international organizations attended the forum.

Figueres said the pace is picking up in Lima, and she is "very confident" that the Green Climate Fund will reach its goal of $10 billion this week in Lima.

"That's not the end of the road, but a very good first good step," she said.

The climate change talks in Peru have entered their second week with the arrival of ministers. The 33-page draft text on a 2015 Paris agreement was released on Monday, nine pages more than the previous version.

Another important text that will define basic information requirements of intended nationally determined contributions was also released.

The two texts will provide a basis for negotiations in the second week, said Li Shuo, Greenpeace East Asia's climate and energy campaigner.

"Negotiators were building fences in the first week, and it has entered a crunch time in the second one," Li said. "Negotiations will shift to a faster pace this week, even with the premise that parties have no problems in accepting the two texts, especially the ADP decision."

ADP, an abbreviation for the Ad Hoc Working Group for the Durban Platform for Advanced Action, is the negotiating panel for the 2015 climate deal.

According to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change website: The ADP is a subsidiary body that was established in December 2011. The mandate of the ADP is to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties, which is to be completed no later than 2015 in order for it to be adopted at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and for it to come into effect and be implemented from 2020."

Developing and developed countries need to use the last week to reach consensus and solve the rifts ahead of a Paris agreement in 2015.

Developing countries insist that all elements such as finance and adaptation should be included in the INDC, while EU Commissioner for Climate and Energy Miguel Arias Canete said on Monday the INDCs are for mitigation.

US special envoy on climate change Todd Stern also held his first press conference Monday.

"At this stage of negotiations, things are never easy," said Stern.

Chinese and American youth released a joint statement Monday to praise their countries' commitments while calling for further climate action.

"The world has witnessed this first step by the US and China, and they are waiting for the lasting actions and implementation," said Su Zhi of the China Youth Climate Action Network.

lanlan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 12/09/2014 page2)