China warned yesterday that the developed world should not dominate a key UN meeting aimed at tackling global warming, while insisting it was fully committed to fighting climate change.
As the week-long meeting of about 400 of the world's top scientists and experts began to look at how to combat global warming, a Chinese delegate called for the interests of poorer countries to be recognized.
"I hope this gathering can produce balanced views," said Sun Guoshun (
"It should not just [represent] the views of the developed countries, but also the views of the developing countries," he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meeting began amid deep concerns over the exponential rise of China as a greenhouse gas polluter.
China could as soon as this year overtake the US as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, according to the International Energy Agency.
China has rejected any internationally binding caps on its emissions, saying the developed world is the major cause of the problem and that developing countries should be allowed to pursue similar economic growth models.
But Sun insisted that China was committed to reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases.
"The Chinese government attaches great importance to addressing climate change," he said.
"That will be a very big challenge for the Chinese government to realize that objective. If that objective is realized, that is a great contribution that the Chinese government will make to climate change," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in