BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – China’s top climate envoy urged developed countries to provide money and technology to developing nations to address climate change, as the countdown begins to the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

Mr Xie Zhenhua, who will represent Beijing at the United Nations climate change conference, said he hoped places such as Europe and the United States “will face up to their historical responsibilities” and “implement their commitments to provide adequate funding, technology and capacity-building support to developing countries”.

Beijing’s top climate envoy, who made the comments in an address to the annual Bund Summit in Shanghai on Saturday (Oct 23), also suggested that financial institutions have a role to play in low-carbon technology cooperation between China and other countries.

“We are willing to work with all parties, including the US and Europe, to strengthen pragmatic cooperation in addressing climate change, especially in the field of green and low-carbon technologies,” he said.

China has pledged to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, though Mr Xie said at the summit that Beijing will “strive to do better” than meeting the targets on schedule.

As the world’s top polluter – with research indicating that the country emits more greenhouse gases than the developed world combined – pressure has been building on the government to do more to curb emissions.

President Xi Jinping said last month that China would stop building new coal-fired power plants in other countries but did not commit to curtailing its own reliance on the fossil fuel.

A recent speech to oil workers by the Chinese president stressing the country’s need to secure its own energy supply signals a continued role for fossil fuels in the nation’s efforts to meet power demands.

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