Beijing vows more aid for climate change

China will increase its investment and the number of programs to expand South-South Cooperation by helping other developing countries tackle climate-change challenges, a leading official said at a UN conference on Tuesday in Qatar.

In the next two years, China has plans to train another 2,000 officials and technicians for other developing countries, in addition to the 380 from 87 developing countries who have already been trained, said Xie Zhenhua, the country's top climate-change official and head of the China delegation.

He said the training will focus mainly on adaptation to climate change, technology transfer and areas related to the development of renewable energy.

This year, China has signed memorandums of understanding with more than 10 countries on delivery of goods to address climate change, sending more than 500,000 energy-saving lamps and 10,000 low-carbon air conditioners.

Helen Clark, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, said China is playing a very important role in South-South Cooperation, in particular for tackling climate change and promoting sustainable development.

Clark was speaking at the China Pavilion in the Qatar National Convention Center.

China is a great developing country that is willing to take global responsibility, she said, quoting a speech made by Premier Wen Jiabao during the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June.

Clark also highlighted the pledge made by Wen in Brazil that China will spend more than $31 million in the next three years to help small island countries, least-developed countries and African countries to tackle climate change.

China is experiencing more frequent and intense natural disasters from the effects of climate change. In 2010, a drought in Southwest China affected more than 51 million people, and floods last year affected 36 million.

Xie said China, as a developing country with a large population, has received help from many international organizations and developed and developing countries in poverty reduction and environmental protection, and is willing to share experiences with other developing countries to fight climate change.

He said that during his visits to Ethiopia, Grenada, Fiji and Samoa in recent years, he saw with his own eyes how much those countries have been enduring because of climate change, and he sympathized with their suffering.

"Developing countries not only need financial and technology support from developed countries as required by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, but also need to support each other," he said.

Grenada was the first country to receive climate-change support goods from China.

wuwencong@chinadaily.com.cn