A senior Chinese official urged the international community in
Washington on Friday to make greater efforts to help developing
countries deal with climate change.
"Securing global energy safety and preventing global climate
change has an important bearing on the national economy and
people's livelihood in the world," Li Yong, China's vice finance
minister, said at a ministerial meeting of the Group of 24
(G-24).
China believes that the international community should follow
the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" and
make greater efforts to transfer technologies to the developing
countries so as to help them improve their capacity for dealing
with climate change, he said.
Li said that China supports the World Bank's new strategy which
broadens and deepens the Clean Energy Investment Framework
(CEIF).
CEIF should not only actively address climate change, but also
aim to meet the increasing energy demand of developing countries,
in particular low-income countries, he stressed.
In this connection, "we strongly call on the bank to expand its
energy assistance to Sub-Sahara Africa in a more vigorous way,"
said the official.
"We encourage the bank to explore new financing mechanisms to
mobilize sufficient financial resources and compensate for the
developing countries' incremental cost of emission reduction," he
said.
China supports the establishment of a long-term and reliable
clean energy policy framework which reflects the principle of
"common but differentiated responsibility."
Also, "we urge the bank to utilize its comparative advantages
and explore the possibility of creating an international technology
cooperation fund to help improve the access of developing countries
to affordable and advanced environment-friendly technologies," Li
said.
China will continue to join actively in the international
cooperation in the field of climate change and commit itself to its
cooperation with developing countries under the framework of
South-South cooperation and improve jointly their capacity for
dealing with climate change, the official said.
The G-24 was established in 1971 to coordinate the positions of
developing countries on international monetary and development
finance issues and to ensure that their interests were adequately
represented in negotiations on international monetary matters.
China has been invited to attend its meetings since 1981.
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2007)
