China attaches great importance to climate change and has always
been a responsible player combating global warming, delegates at
the 17th Party congress said, ahead of a number of
international meetings addressing the problem.
Party General Secretary Hu Jintao said at the congress that all
countries "should assist and cooperate with each other in
conservation efforts to take good care of the Earth, our only
home".
For the first time the CPC has added global environmental issues
to its political report at the congress, setting out the country's
top priorities in the following five years. The Party leadership
has also put domestic environmental protection and energy reduction
high on the agenda.
Pledging cooperation on economic, social, cultural and
environmental issues, Hu called on people to join hands and strive
to build a harmonious world of lasting peace and common
prosperity.
Congress delegates hailed Hu's speech as a new expression of the
country's purpose to combat global climate change.
"China should actively take on the environmental protection
issue and push forward on behalf of developing countries," said Pan
Yue, congress delegate and vice-minister of the State Environment
Protection Administration.
He said the impact of centuries of industrial development by
developed nations needs addressing and barriers for the transfer of
environmental technologies should be swept away.
The vice-minister added that the current energy and production
and consumption structure needs restructuring on the basis of
environmental protection. He said pollution had to be cut and China
would be a responsible player in terms of managing climate
change.
"Environmental protection is not only a key field where China
can catch up and be integrated with the international community,
but also a stage where China can put forward the concepts of a
harmonious world and peaceful development," Pan said, on the
sidelines of the congress.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China attaches great
importance to a number of upcoming international conferences on
combating climate change.
"China has always been in full compliance with the principles
set out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol," Yang said.
Under the principle of "common but differentiated
responsibility", all countries have an obligation to protect the
world's environment. As each country is at different development
stages, they share different obligations.
China, which has tens of millions of people trying to solve
basic problems, has "survival emissions".
These are not in the same category as developed countries, which
should take the blame for the majority of global warming because of
their greenhouse gas emissions in the past 200 years, said Zheng
Guoguang, director of the China Meteorological Administration
(CMA).
China is best among all developing countries in terms of
environmental protection, Zheng said. "We have started a national
action plan and are committed to cut energy consumption even though
there is no international obligation for us to do so," he said.
Zheng said China has always attached great importance to
environmental issues and sent the biggest delegation to
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change negotiations.
"China holds that all countries in the world should work
together to address global warming, which is a foundation for our
development and life," he said.
(China Daily October 22, 2007)
