US
Don't say 'no' to Cancun proposals
By Li Xing, Li Jing and Lan Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-07 10:58
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CANCUN, Mexico - China hopes that negotiators refrain from saying "no" and work on solutions to settle their differences, said Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese climate change delegation, in his first meeting with the media since he arrived in Cancun on Saturday.
"We need to take proactive attitudes to push for progress," Xie said.
Xie's words came as India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said that Brazil, South Africa, India and China (the so-called BASIC countries) would do all they can to ensure "a substantive and successful outcome at Cancun" at a joint press conference with Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira and South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa.
Ramesh announced on behalf of the four ministers that the BASIC countries "are not candidates for the fast-start finance". The $30 billion fund was a key element agreed on in Copenhagen. In the deal, industrialized countries would provide financial aid to "vulnerable" countries.
Xie urged that progress should especially be made toward implementing the fast-start finance fund.
"The finance should be additional, adequate and transparent," he said, adding that developed countries should honor their promise made during the Copenhagen climate change talks last year.
The four BASIC nations spelled out three principles that are non-negotiable, namely the need for developed countries to commit to a renewal of Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012; stepping up the disbursement of the $30 billion fund; and the need to set up a method of transferring technology to not only address adaptation needs but also to keep the dialogue of intellectual property rights issue going.
Japan contributed to formulating the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding international treaty on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, and it should not turn back on what it had honored, Xie said in answering a question about Japan's announcement that it would not renew the Kyoto Protocol.
International consultation and analysis - a proposed new system to make sure that mitigation efforts from emerging economies be transparent and accountable - has drawn a lot of attention during the meetings.
China believes that the global effort to tackle climate change under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) constitutes three major building blocks, Xie said.
First, developed nations listed under the Annex 1 of the Kyoto Protocol should honor their agreement and set GHG emissions reduction targets for the second period (2013-2018) of the protocol.
Second, the non-Annex 1 developed countries make comparable mitigation commitments with those of Annex 1 countries under the convention.
Third, developing countries spell out their voluntary GHG emissions reduction targets, he said, adding that under the UNFCCC, these countries would honor their commitments.
China and India, as developing countries, are technically not bound by the protocol to reduce GHG emissions.
After Xie arrived in Cancun at noon on Saturday, he held eight bilateral and multilateral meetings with his counterparts. On Monday, 10 meetings were scheduled.
China Daily