Leaders of the Group of Five (G5) major developing countries urged on Wednesday developed nations to provide financial support to poor countries in adapting to global warming.

In a joint political statement issued after a summit, the leaders of India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa said that global warming "poses a defining challenge for the present and future generations. Adaptation to climate change is of crucial importance and should be given equal emphasis as mitigation."

"We urge developed countries to assist the developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in meeting costs of adaptation," the statement said.

They also urged developed countries to commit themselves to ambitious and comparable quantified emission reduction targets by reducing their emissions in aggregate by at least 40 percent below their 1990 levels by 2020, in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.

Reaffirming the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, and underlining the fundamental role of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, they prodded their developed counterparts to "provide measurable, reportable and verifiable technology, financing and capacity building to support and enable developing countries to take nationally appropriate mitigation actions in the context of sustainable development."

They also expressed interest in further considering proposals for the establishment of international funding arrangements, including the proposal of Mexico for a green Fund, and the setting of a climate financing goal for all developed countries to contribute a certain percentage of their annual GDP in addition to ODA, among others aimed at ensuring adequate, predictable and sustained funding to support nationally appropriate mitigation actions by developing countries.

They called for the establishment of a global mechanism for the development, deployment and transfer of climate-friendly technologies, given their importance in fighting climate change.

The emerging countries, which have been invited to the L'Aquila summit meetings by the G8, fully pledged to work for an "ambitious outcome at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen" to ensure full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol.

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2009)