Failure in Copenhagen conference not an option: official
- Source: Xinhua
- [10:01 December 14 2009]
- Comments
China has great expectations for the Copenhagen climate change conference, which must be a success in order to launch measures to avoid calamitous global warming, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said on Sunday.
Government ministers were arriving in Copenhagen over the weekend to work for an agreement on two draft texts that emerged from a week of discussions at the UN climate talks amid expectations that negotiators from over 190 countries will seal a deal to fight climate change.
"Climate change is a challenge the whole global community faces, failure in Copenhagen climate conference is not an option," He told Xinhua in an interview.
The Chinese official promised that "as a big country, China will do its share, so we've taken a constructive and positive approach in the Copenhagen talks and elsewhere."
Last month, China announced that it would reduce the intensity of carbon emissions per unit of its GDP in 2020 by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels. Later this week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will join more than 100 heads of state and government in Copenhagen to attend a climate summit.
Premier Wen will expound China's policy, action plan and proposals on climate change, he said, adding that Wen's participation demonstrates the importance China attaches to the issue of global warming and the climate talks.
Progress has been made in the first week of talks, but negotiating groups are still wide apart on some key issues, such as emission cuts by developed nations and financial support for developing nations, he said.
