China: Pact not prefect, but a huge step forward

For China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, the global climate accord reached in Paris marked a huge step toward greener growth that safeguards its sovereignty while falling short on funding for cleaner energy.

Xie Zhenhua, Beijing’s senior climate change envoy, said he welcomed what he described as a flawed agreement.

On Saturday, the global climate summit in Paris produced a landmark accord that set the course for an historic transformation of the world’s fossil fuel-driven economy within decades in a bid to arrest global warming.

“This accord isn’t perfect,” Mr Xie told reporters late on Saturday following the talks. “There are parts of it that need to be improved. But this doesn’t affect the fact that history has taken a huge step forward, and so we are satisfied.”

“It should provide a lot of impetus for China’s own green, low-carbon development and as we implement it, it will promote our own domestic sustainable development,” he added.

Throughout the negotiations, Chinese delegates repeated the mantra of “differentiation, transparency and ambition” as the key interlocking elements of any deal, and also sought to ensure that China’s sovereignty rem-ained intact.