China is committed to strengthening ability and capacity to fight climate change and to making new contribution to protecting the global climate, said a Chinese official on Friday.

China has set very ambitious domestic goals to combat climate change and is taking a series of practical and proactive actions including setting up regulatory, legal, financial, and economic instruments, said Su Wei, director-general of the Office of National Leading Group on Climate Change under the National Development and Reform Commission.

China is committed to controlling green house gas (GHG) emissions by 2010 and endeavors are to be made to achieve such goals as reducing energy consumption per unit GDP by 20 percent; increasing the share of renewable energy to 10 percent; stabilizing nitrous oxide emissions from industrial processes at 2005 level; controlling the growth of methane emissions; increasing the forest coverage rate to 20 percent and increasing carbon sink by 50 million tons over 2005 level, Su said at a side event for the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali.

China is closing down those backward energy intensive plants and replacing them with advanced ones. China is also implementing the 10 priority energy conservation programs targeting at more than 1,000 key energy intensive enterprise, Su told participants at the side-event "The United Nations and China: Connecting Institutions, Technology and Partnerships to Combat Climate Change" .

For adaptation to climate change, China is trying hard to enhance capacity for disaster prevention, warning and mitigation. Efforts are also being made to improve the adaptation capacity in the agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, health, tourism, and other sectors. The formulation of national adaptation strategy is well underway.

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and U.N. Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China Khalid Malik also delivered speech at the event.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2007)