BEIJING, (PNA/Xinhua) — A senior Chinese official on Tuesday urged developed countries to keep their commitments on climate financing and outline concrete actions ahead of a number of key meetings on the issue.
Developed nations should promise to inject funds of no less than the fast-start funding between 2013 and 2015, said Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at a press conference.
They should also chart a clear course for meeting the funding pledge of US$ 100 billion by 2020, invest in the Green Climate Fund as soon as possible and ensure that developing countries get concrete funding support, he said.
His remarks came on the eve of the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the ninth Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which will be held on Nov. 11 in the Polish capital of Warsaw.
“The funding issue is the biggest concern for developing countries. It is pivotal for developing countries to implement their proposed targets for emission-cutting action and for multilateral technological transfer,” he said.
At the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, developed nations promised to mobilize US$ 100 billion per year by 2020 in order to address climate change.
Apart from the funding issue, Xie said the upcoming Warsaw Conference should be an opportunity for all parties in the second commitment period of the protocol to ratify the Amendment to the second commitment of the protocol as soon as possible, and to set a higher emission-cutting target in line with the agreement reached at the Doha Conference.
According to the principle of comparability, developed countries who have not signed up to the second commitment period of the protocol, or who have withdrawn from or have not ratified the protocol should also raise their levels of emission cuts before 2020, Xie noted.
Developed countries should meet their emission cut, funding and technology transfer pledges from previous conferences and scale up efforts with action before 2020, urged the NDRC deputy head.
“This is the foundation for maintaining mutual trust among all parties and also the precondition and guarantee for progress made at the Durban Conference negotiations,” he said.
Xie vowed that China will continue playing an active and constructive role at the Warsaw conference, and work with all parties to ensure a successful conference on the basis of openness and transparency, extensive participation, signatory leadership and consensus through consultation.