China calls on West to reduce GHG emissions
By ALEX DELMAR-MORGAN
DOHA, Qatar -- China led calls by developing nations Wednesday for Western economies to make the sharpest reduction in carbon emissions to help fight climate change.
Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation at the United Nations' climate change conference in Doha, also called on developed countries to make good on their 3-year-old pledge of providing $100 billion of financial aid annually by 2020 to emerging nations to help them tackle global warming.
"Developed countries should take the lead in a large-scale emission reduction," Mr. Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, told reporters at the Doha summit.
"Developed countries are responsible for providing financial and technological support to developing countries and assisting in capacity building to address climate change."
Poorer countries argue the West should lead from the front in cutting greenhouse gases because it is largely responsible for the heating of the planet since industrial times.
China, the world's top polluter, aims to cut emissions by between 40% and 45% by 2020 and will spend 2 trillion Chinese yuan ($321 billion) between 2011 and 2015 on emission reduction and energy-saving schemes, Mr. Zhenhua said.
Dow Jones Newswires
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