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)