The Swedish government announced Thursday that it has adopted a new strategy to advance its cooperation with China on climate issues and the environment.

"The strategy covers the period until the end of 2013 and has funding of 50 million kronor (about 6.3 million U.S. dollars) per year，”the government said in a statement.

The government said it has instructed the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to target cooperation with China on climate and the environment.

Gunilla Carlsson, the minister for International Development Cooperation, said the threat to the environment is global and concerns everyone.

"Here we see opportunities to strengthen cooperation between Sweden and China," Carlsson said.

The aid-financed activities, Carlsson said, will focus on enabling and assisting independent Swedish and Chinese actors to meet and create self-supporting projects together.

That, she said, applies to the environmental area, where Sweden has many actors with the cutting edge expertise China is looking for.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2009)