China will earnestly fulfill its commitment to the international community to curb global warming as the country seeks sustainable development, said Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Beijing Tuesday.

"China, as one of the developing countries suffering from climate change, pays great attention to this issue," said Li at a press conference held on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

The international community has already formulated the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, which established the fundamental principles for developed and developing countries in coping with climate change, including the fundamental principle of "common but differentiated responsibility,” according to Li.

China has set a target to put the emissions of greenhouse gases under control and reduce energy consumption for per unit GDP by 20 percent during the 2006-2010 period.

"This will be China's contribution to resolving the issue of global climate change," said Li.

As a new measure to reach this goal, Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan announced on January 29 that China will close and suspend small power generating units with a total annual capacity of 50 million kilowatts in four years.

"At present, China's per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning is less than one sixth than that of some big countries. The emissions are partly caused by the relocation of international industries along with economic globalization," said the foreign minister.

At the opening of the NPC session on Monday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will meet the energy saving and pollution control targets between 2006 and 2010 despite last year's setback.

China's energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2006 went down 1.2 percent, and oxygen chemical demand and sulfur dioxide emission rose 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, falling short of the targets set at the beginning of last year to cut energy consumption per unit GDP by 4 percent and discharge of major pollutants by 2 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2007)