China, as a developing nation, is not obliged to contribute to the post-2025 climate financing target, which is the obligation of developed countries to support developing economies, stressed China's Climate Envoy Liu Zhenmin.
He also underscored China's consistent solidarity with other developing nations to ensure that developed countries come up with a specific climate finance target for the Global South in the COP29 United Nations climate conference.
Liu made the remarks in an interview with China Daily on Saturday on the sidelines of the UN gathering attended by almost 200 countries in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Officially known as the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29 kicked off on Nov 11 and will end on Friday.
Its key task is to establish a New Collective Quantified Goal, or post-2025 climate financing commitment for developing nations.
In a deliberate attempt to shift the focus and mislead the direction of the negotiations, Liu said some developed countries argued that China should also contribute to the commitment. The argument has no legal support at all, he emphasized.
"As we have consistently maintained, and it's a common ground of the Group of 77 and China, that the New Collective Quantified Goal is a target that developed countries are supposed to contribute to. This is also stipulated very clearly in Article 9 of the Paris Agreement," he said.
The article stipulates that developed country parties shall provide financial resources to assist developing country parties with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Other parties are encouraged to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily, it adds.
"Our position is unequivocal: as a developing nation, we cannot partake in the developed countries' obligations to commit an amount to the NCQG. It's their business," Liu said.
The climate envoy, however, stressed that China will continue to support climate responses in other developing countries via South-South cooperation channels.
Mentioning that climate negotiations are to a great extent negotiations between the groups of developed and developing countries, he underlined China's duty as a major world power in safeguarding the interest of the Global South.
China has been a major driving force for international cooperation in climate negotiations over the past 30 years. Within this group dynamic, major nations wield significant influence, he said.
"As a prominent member of the developing country bloc, China takes pride in its influence and role. But we also understand that we should not just defend China's position, but also that of all developing nations.
"More importantly, we should safeguard global cooperation and multilateralism. Our goals are clear, and our expectations are high, despite the considerable challenges we face," he said.
Despite very limited progress so far in negotiations amid significant geopolitical divisions, the climate envoy believes that it's still possible that the conference will conclude with good outcomes.
Following Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, concerns have risen among some countries, notably developed countries, regarding the potential for the US to once again withdraw from the Paris Agreement, he stated.
During his previous term as US president, Trump declared in 2017 that the US would withdraw from the pivotal 2015 Paris Agreement. The withdrawal was formally finalized through official procedures in November 2020.
He mentioned that there is apprehension about whether the US will continue to contribute to the NCQG if the withdrawal does happen again. Moreover, disputes have also emerged in the first few days of COP29 between Azerbaijan and the European Union on a few bilateral issues.
Liu said China had made efforts to urge the EU, a key player in global climate negotiations, to set aside disputes to focus more intently on the ongoing climate talks.
"In comparison to the anticipated outcomes of the conference, the disputes are minor," Liu noted, adding that the sentiment has been echoed by the EU, and he is glad to see that the dispute is gradually cooling down.
"We are just halfway through. We are still confident that, with accelerated actions from all parties, the conference may still possibly yield good results," he said.
