Developed countries should turn their policy promises into real action to make substantial progress in current negotiations on climate change, says a key Chinese environmental official.

Yu Qingtai, China's special representative for the UN climate change talks, spoke on the sidelines of this year's third session of the talks, which opened in Bonn Monday.

About 2,000 people from around the world attended the meeting, focusing on the text that was drafted during the second round of the talks in June.

Yu said in an interview with Xinhua that the negotiation process has moved very slowly since the "Bali Road Map" was settled in 2007 because the developed countries did not want to fulfill their responsibilities and take real action.

The two major obstacles, Yu said, are the lack of political will by the developed nations to take the lead in emission cuts, and no substantial progress in providing finance and technology to developing countries.

Developed countries should and must take the lead on emissions cuts, which is the common wish of the developing nations, Yu said.

"One of the major tasks for Copenhagen is to make new emission cut targets for developed countries," he said, referring to a December meeting where world leaders will gather in the Danish capital to reach an agreement on a new climate deal that will replace the existing Kyoto Protocol.

Yu expressed hope that the Copenhagen meeting would be successful, but he was "cautiously optimistic" about the possibility of reaching a new agreement on emission cuts.

"The key for the negotiation lies on the real actions of developed countries and I wish they can take the step earlier," he said.

The Chinese representative added that for the developed countries, it is not a charity action to provide financial and technological support for the developing nations.

"It is their own historical responsibilities to do that," he said. "This is the obligations written down in the UN Convention 10 years ago. However, in these 10 years, developed countries talked much but did very little. They must turn their words and promises into real actions."

Climate change concerns the common interest of mankind, Yu said.

"No country can stay aloof from it. Only real international cooperation can solve this problem," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2009)