President Xi Jinping meets with French President Francois Hollande for the much-awaited United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris. (Photo : www.xinhuanet.com)
President Xi Jinping is expected on Monday, Nov. 30, to stimulate leaders of other countries to take global actions and reach a historic, balanced and fair agreement on managing global carbon emissions after 2020 at a summit in Paris, China Daily reported.
According to the report, Xi, together with his wife Peng Liyuan and other senior officials, arrived in the French capital on Sunday, Nov. 29, as guest of French President Francois Hollande and Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister and chair of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Chinese leader is expected to defend the interests of developing economies on climate change and call on rich countries to transfer technology and capital.
The occasion will be the first time for China's top leader to attend and speak at the U.N. climate change conference.
The report added that a total of 147 global leaders will attend the conference, barely weeks after terrorists attacked the French capital, which left scores dead and hundreds injured.
Negotiating teams of various countries are expected to seal an ambitious landmark climate change deal after the United Nations concluded the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Copenhagen Accord in 2009.
Xi and First Lady Peng Liyuan will later visit Zimbabwe and South Africa, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Observers said that President Xi may give his negotiating team more flexibility to maximize global efforts to limit temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius until the end of this century, a scenario that will likely happen only if advanced economies commit more at the negotiating table.
China has already announced a plan to boost its energy intensity, adding that its carbon emissions will peak around 2030.
The report said that the negotiating teams will be keeping a close watch on the actions of Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama after they made two statements on climate change in 2014 and this year.
Niels B. Christiansen, president and CEO of Danfoss, a global producer of products and services, noted China's proactive stance in building a low carbon economy with the launch of a "green revolution" under Xi's leadership.
"We believe China will take a more active role at the upcoming conference as its importance in the global economy continues to grow," Christiansen said.
Samantha Smith, leader of the World Wide Fund for Nature Global Climate and Energy Initiative, said that Xi's presence in Paris indicates China's commitment to getting an agreement.
Isabel Hilton, CEO of the China Dialogue Trust in London, also said that the presence of Xi and other leaders in Paris shows their serious adherence to fight climate change.
"Without political leadership, it will not be possible to make the necessary progress on limiting emissions," Hilton said.
Dale Jamieson, a professor of environmental studies at New York University, said that Xi's attendance in Paris along with the other leaders is crucial since it indicates that he wants China to be part of the solution to climate change.
"The significance of the Paris summit lies in providing a direction for global sustainable development and making more people aware of the urgent challenges facing humanity and how to make adjustments," Jamieson said.
Su Wei, China's chief negotiator on climate change and deputy head of the Chinese delegation to the Paris conference, remarked: "China was the first developing country to put forward national goals for cutting emissions. This year, almost all developing countries have such goals, so the Paris conference is a landmark one."
