China plays active, constructive role during first week of negotiations: Chinese official

It's obvious to all that China has been playing an active and constructive role during the first week of Paris climate change talks, China's chief climate negotiator Su Wei said Saturday.

"Chinese delegation has been fully participating in the negotiation of the relevant documents, and devoting its efforts to pushing the Paris Conference to a positive outcome," Su noted, stressing that climate change is "a global challenge".

Commenting on the process of the first week's negotiations, Su said: "Although the first week is rather tough, it has laid a very solid foundation for next week's negotiations".

Compared to the first version of the draft negotiators reached early this year in Geneva, Switzerland, which runs to nearly 100 pages, the draft on Friday was more readable with fewer and clearer options for different issues.

According to the chief negotiator, there are still "several divergences" remained to be bridged, and the best way to bridging divergences is "for us to communicate and to negotiate in order to find a solution during the negotiations".

For China's chief negotiator, what matters in this negotiation on the financial issues "comes from the historical responsibilities for causing the climate problems", referring to the provision of the Convention in which developed countries are committed to providing financial, technology and capacity supports to developing countries.

"For the agreement in Paris, it is very important to reaffirm that developed countries would continue to honor their commitments and the Convention, to provide financial, technology and capacity supports to developing countries," Su reaffirmed.

However, since the climate change is threatening everybody and every human being, developing countries, different from developed countries, should provide financial support "on a voluntary basis".

China vows to make available 20 billion Chinese RMB yuan to establish China's South-South Fund on Climate Change, while some developed countries are facing difficulties in coughing up financial supports to developing countries.

"China's contribution to the South-South cooperation fund doesn't depend on what contributions that developed countries made to honor the commitments and the Convention," Su added.

A final draft of a new global climate agreement was reached by negotiators in Paris on Saturday, ready for ministers to read and deal with sensitive political divergences next week.

The draft, now running to 21 pages, consists of 26 articles covering different issues include emission reduction, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology and transparency of action and support. It will now be handed over to ministers for further discussion next week. Endit