China warns rich nations against "shirking responsibility" on climate change

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday warned that the rich nations should not "shift and shirk" responsibility on climate change, and urged them to provide developing countries with funds to deal with the global issue.

"According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), developed countries have responsibility to offer financial support to all developing countries on mitigating and adapting to climate change," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told a regular news briefing.

"Funding is one of the key issues that will determine the success or failure of the Copenhagen conference. The offer of funds is the unshirkable responsibility of developed countries," said Jiang.

The UN Climate Change Conference, which opened Monday in Copenhagen, gathered representatives from 192 countries and aimed at mapping out a plan for combatting climate change from 2012 to 2020.

Financial support is a key issue at the talks.

Reports has quoted Todd Stern, U.S. special envoy for climate change, as saying that the United States would contribute to a fund aimed at helping developing nations deal with climate change, but China would not be a recipient of financial aid as it had a booming economy and large foreign exchange reserves.

"We hope that developed countries can positively respond to reasonable requests and suggestions from developing countries, demonstrate political sincerity and fulfil their obligations rather than shift and shirk responsibility," said Jiang.

"We hope the relevant parties make efforts to make the Copenhagen conference achieve results acceptable to all sides," Jiang said.