China is committed to strengthening ability and capacity to
fight climate change and to making new contribution to protecting
the global climate, said a Chinese official on Friday.
China has set very ambitious domestic goals to combat climate
change and is taking a series of practical and proactive actions
including setting up regulatory, legal, financial, and economic
instruments, said Su Wei, director-general of the Office of
National Leading Group on Climate Change under the National
Development and Reform Commission.
China is committed to controlling green house gas (GHG)
emissions by 2010 and endeavors are to be made to achieve such
goals as reducing energy consumption per unit GDP by 20 percent;
increasing the share of renewable energy to 10 percent; stabilizing
nitrous oxide emissions from industrial processes at 2005 level;
controlling the growth of methane emissions; increasing the forest
coverage rate to 20 percent and increasing carbon sink by 50
million tons over 2005 level, Su said at a side event for the
ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Bali.
China is closing down those backward energy intensive plants and
replacing them with advanced ones. China is also implementing the
10 priority energy conservation programs targeting at more than
1,000 key energy intensive enterprise, Su told participants at the
side-event "The United Nations and China: Connecting Institutions,
Technology and Partnerships to Combat Climate Change" .
For adaptation to climate change, China is trying hard to
enhance capacity for disaster prevention, warning and mitigation.
Efforts are also being made to improve the adaptation capacity in
the agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, health, tourism, and
other sectors. The formulation of national adaptation strategy is
well underway.
Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC) and U.N. Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in China Khalid Malik also delivered speech
at the event.
(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2007)
