Chinese envoy rebuts unfounded U.S. accusations over climate policy

A Chinese envoy on Thursday rebutted the baseless U.S. accusations regarding China's climate policy.

At a Security Council meeting on climate and security, U.S. representative Dan Negrea accused China of gaining unfair economic advantages by undercutting its economic competitors and urged UN member states to look to the United States as a model.

Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, responded to the U.S. allegations, saying that China, a country with a population of 1.4 billion and the second-largest gross domestic product in the world, "is contributing annually more than 30 percent to the world economic growth, and its per capita emission is not among the highest in the world."

China is recognized by the international community as one of the countries with the firmest will, the strongest actions, and the most remarkable results in fulfilling its emission reduction commitment, Geng said. "It is definitely a doer in the global response to climate change."

"I also wish to indirectly point out that we have another permanent member of the Security Council whose total greenhouse gas emissions in history take up the first place in the world, and its per capita emission is always number one in the world. This permanent member of the Security Council has taken a major step backward in history by withdrawing twice from the Paris Agreement, severely undermining global climate governance efforts," Geng said.

"In terms of climate change, who is taking action? Who is shirking responsibilities? Who is promoting cooperation? Who is disrupting cooperation? The international community sees it all clearly," he added.

Geng called on the international community to promote cooperation and solidarity instead of pointing fingers or shirking responsibilities in global climate action.