Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Xie Zhenhua reiterated on Dec. 11 that China will strengthen its efforts to support the South-South Cooperation Fund and increase the success of the 2015 Paris Conference.

"I hope all parties should announce their intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) as early as possible, and China will also set its post-2020 action target, which is likely to be a package," said Xie, suggesting that the action target will be verified in an open and transparent way. Once the target is announced, the international community will review it against the two degrees Celsius target.

"China suggests that the review be carried out after the 2015 Paris Conference. Before that, the international community should ensure that the upcoming conference is a success, and during the conference a universally accepted agreement will be reached," said Xie, noting that China is not afraid of receiving assessment, because the country has done much to deal with climate change.

On Nov. 12, China and the United States unveiled their respective post-2020 targets to tackle climate change. China intends to achieve a carbon emission peak around 2030 make its best efforts to peak early, and it intends to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in the country's primary energy consumption to around 20 percent by 2020.

"What we care about and need to ensure is the success of the 2015 Paris Conference," said Xie.

The assessment of post-2020 targets should be carried out in a constructive way, enabling countries to learn from each other and push each other to intensify their efforts. There is inevitably a gap between the INDCs and the two Celsius degree target. To address this situation, each party should increase its ambitions before 2020 and enhance cooperation after 2020 in terms of finance and technology transfers.

"To this end, China's position is no assessment in the second half of next year," said Xie.

Xie hopes that the South-South Cooperation Fund will help developing countries to enhance their capacities to address climate change in a non-profit way. "Although China does not have an obligation to fund developing countries, we are offering US$10 million each year for the South-South Cooperation framework to expand the capacity of adaptation."

In response to voices from some foreign media wondering whether China is still a developing country and urging China to increase emissions reduction, Xie said he could understand if these accusations were from ministers of foreign countries due to political reasons. At the same time, Xie believed these countries have no position to urge China to do more, because China has done much better than any other country.

"China insists that all countries should join hands to strengthen political dialogue, carry out substantive cooperation, enhance domestic action to address climate change, and work together on multilateral occasions, to promote international progress on this front," said Xie.

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