China reiterates pledge on climate change, plays down US policy changes

China will enhance support for combating climate change in countries along the belt and road no matter what stance is taken by the United States, a senior official with the nation's economic regulator said on Sunday.

"Taking advantage of regional cooperation opportunities brought by the Belt and Road initiative, China will enhance financial and technical support in the next a couple of years to combat the global challenge of climate change," Zhao Xing, deputy head of Zhejiang Development and Reform Commission, said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion on the sidelines of a seminar on combating climate change in developing countries along the belt and road held in Hangzhou by the International Cooperation Center, part of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhao did not reveal the exact amount of financial support on offer.

He said China will send experts to countries to help improve capacity building, create a viable environment for outbound investment in infrastructural construction projects, and make sure that efforts match the needs of countries.

Regional cooperation will help enhance regional climate policy coordination, according to Cai He, director of the Center for Climate Change and Low Carbon Development Cooperation at the commission.

He said efforts taken by China will not be impacted by a likely retreat of the United States from the Paris Agreement, because dealing with climate change is part of efforts that help facilitate domestic restructuring.

There is a lot that developing countries along the belt and road could learn from China's years of experience in dealing with climate change challenges such as floods and typhoons which remain threats for coastal countries along the belt and road, he said.

Citing the example of helping African countries build hydropower stations, Cai said that technology and financing from China for building stations will help improve resilience to climate change challenges on a large scale, especially in rural and remote places.

Yang Hua, Vice President of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the cooperation can bring win-win results, because Chinese institutions and enterprises are able to get policy support once cooperative projects have been approved as key programs of One Belt and Road initiative by the National Development and Reform Commission.