Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on June 5 expounded on China's position on the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) and climate change at the ACD's sixth ministerial meeting.

In a speech delivered at the meeting, Yang said the ACD's goal is to achieve peaceful, harmonious and common development in Asia.
 The ACD plays a positive role in raising the awareness of Asia's integration, promoting political mutual trust and increasing mutually beneficial cooperation, Yang said.

China supports the ACD in its efforts to promote pan-Asian cooperation, including continuing to play its role in carrying out dialogue and communication and striving to deepen cooperation in such areas as poverty relief, agriculture, energy, information technology, infrastructure, tourism, environment and education, he said.

In this way, fuller play will be given to the complementarily advantageous mechanisms for sub-regional cooperation in Asia, he added.

China appreciates the proposals for enhancing information technology cooperation in order to narrow the "digital divide" between members and also favors establishing a high-level research group that will put forward ideas and suggestions on the future development of the ACD, Yang said.

As an initiator of the ACD's agricultural cooperation, China will continue to enhance such cooperation among its members, he said.
 On the issue of climate change, Yang said that first, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol have established the basic principles for responding to climate change; second, the developed countries should continue to take the lead in cutting emissions after 2012 and increase technology transfer to the developing countries; third, for a considerably long period of time to come, developing countries will make their own contributions to tackle climate change mainly through mapping out and carrying out a strategy for sustainable development and by participating in international cooperation in a clean development mechanism; fourth, China is a developing country, and its average emission of carbon dioxide is less than 33 percent of developed countries.

Even so, the Chinese Government attaches great importance to the issue of climate change. China's 11th "Five-Year" Plan explicitly put forward that the energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2010 should be cut by 20 percent on the 2005 basis. The Chinese Government has formulated the China National Climate Change Programme to deal with this.

In accordance with its own sustainable development strategy, China will strive to build an energy-saving and environment-friendly society so as to contribute to efforts to tackle climate change.