Funding will play a decisive role in determining the fate of international climate talks this year, a top Chinese negotiator said yesterday, while calling on rich nations to commit to steeper cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases.
'Financial aid that developed nations pledged at Copenhagen last year to help developing nations [cope with global warming] holds the key to the success of the Cancun meeting,' Su Wei, director of the National Development and Reform Commission's climate change department, said.
His remarks, on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Tianjin, confirmed speculation that an agreement on climate financing was within reach despite widespread pessimism that has clouded climate negotiations this year.
Negotiators from more than 170 nations are meeting in Tianjin to make final preparations for a climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, starting on November 29.
But delegates have long expressed doubt that the talks in Cancun can yield a binding deal on tackling global warming after the failure at last year's Copenhagen summit.
Instead, they have been urged to make progress on specifics of a future pact in a desperate bid to revive the foundering talks and restore their badly damaged credibility.
Rich nations pledged to provide US$30 billion to poor nations in fast-start financing over three years by 2012, according to the Copenhagen Accord, a non-binding compromise deal brokered by the United States, China and three other big developing countries.