China accuses rich countries of ‘backsliding’ on climate promises
- ‘Quite a number’ of developed countries have not yet started providing the financial and technological support they pledged under the Paris Agreement three years ago, Chinese envoy to global warming conference says
China accused some of the richest nations in the world of “backsliding” on pledges to clean up pollution and provide US$100 billion a year in climate-related aid by 2020.
The comments at the United Nations’ COP24 climate change conference in Poland spearheaded a push by a group of the 49 “least developed countries” for clarity on when those promises will be fulfilled. It indicated deepening tensions as the talks that are due to conclude in the industrial city of Katowice on Friday.
“Some delegations we are seeing backsliding,” Xie Zhenhua, China’s lead envoy to the talks in Katowice, said at a briefing on Thursday afternoon.
“There are still quite a number of developed countries who did not start” providing financial and technological support that they had pledged in the Paris Agreement three years ago, he said. “We cannot accept any backsliding.”
The remarks emphasised the divide on environmental issues between China and the United States, which had worked together to seal the landmark deal in Paris in 2015. Since then, US President Donald Trump has vowed to pull out of the deal and worked to boost use of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel.