Preview of the Cancun Climate Change Talks

Anchor: The long journey to counter climate change is arriving at an important station when the United Nations Climate Change Conference begins in Mexico's resort city of Cancun on Monday. China attaches great importance to climate change and the upcoming Cancun talk, for which China believes dual-track negotiations are crucial. CRI's He Fei has the details.

Leaders or representatives from 180 countries are scheduled to discuss climate change and greenhouse gas emissions on Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 in Cancun.

Ahead of the conference, optimism remains for substantial progress in dual-track negotiations on the "Bali Road Map", although the international community agrees it may be difficult to achieve a legally-binding agreement.

Huang Huikang, special representative for climate change negotiations of China's Foreign Ministry, said China hopes substantial progress would be made at Cancun in regards to the concerns of the developing countries.

According to Huang, financial and technological supports are two key issues for developing countries. He thinks at the upcoming Cancun talks, China will reiterate that developed countries should honor their obligations to provide 30 billion U.S. dollars for fast-start finance for 2010-2012 and long-term funding of 100 billion dollars per year by 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord.

China made a domestic pledge to reduce "carbon intensity", the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each dollar of economic growth, by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005.

Xie Zhenhua, the country's top climate change negotiator said China has abided by the shared principle of 'common but differentiated responsibility' in meeting this global challenge.

"China has done everything the conventions and protocols, the Bali roadmap, the Copenhagen accord have asked for, and in certain aspects we have really done well, but we are not prepared to exceed what a developing country is able to do."

At last year's conference in Copenhagen, developed countries, represented by the United States, failed to make their due commitment to emission reductions, rather, they pointed fingers at developing countries.

US President Barack Obama wants to cut American greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, but legislation failed to win backing of the U.S. Senate.

Professor Zhang Haibin at Peking University's School of International Studies said the U.S.'s apparent inability to meet its own targets could dent good will.

"At the moment everyone is looking at America, but it is very unlikely they will take any substantial action. This will have a negative impact on China and other countries."

The Cancun meeting is the 16th Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 6th Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol.

A nearly 70-strong delegation of the Chinese government, headed by Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, would arrive in Cancun progressively.

For CRI, I'm He Fei.