A UN-China program to help the country fight and better adapt to climate change will kick off next year.

Releasing the plan, UN resident coordinator and UN Development Program (UNDP) resident representative in China Khalid Malik, said yesterday: "It's a landmark inter-agency initiative to bring the UN's full force to bear on China's mitigation and adaptation challenges."

The UN-China Climate Change Partnership Framework (CCPF) will attract $19 million, Malik said. The UN will contribute $12 million, the Chinese government, $2 million, and the rest will be raised from the private sector globally.

The framework will be designed to push new technology transfer, set up green investment mechanism, work on post-Kyoto Protocol strategies, start clean coal pilot projects at local levels, increase energy efficiency and develop renewable energy, Malik said. It will also help the country include adaptability to climate change in its future development and investment plans.

Multiple sides will take part in the program, including nine UN agencies, and China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce.

The UNDP and NDRC will set up a climate change information center, which will serve as an innovation hub to adopt the best international practices and facilitate sharing of knowledge across the globe.

The 2007-08 UN Human Development Report released on Tuesday calls for more government spending to fight and adapt to climate change. Poverty has declined sharply in China because of the rapid economic growth, it says, but the country remains highly vulnerable to climate change.

If action is not taken quickly, human development in areas affected by climate change in China could suffer a reversal.

All About Global Warming

(China Daily November 29, 2007)