Developed nations shouldn't ignore the great efforts China and other developing countries have put in to tackle climate change, ministers from China, Brazil, Mexico and Portugal said in Washington on Wednesday.

Despite the main task of alleviating poverty, "China is making great efforts to reduce energy consumption by improving efficiency and increasing the use of renewable energy," National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Vice-Minister Xie Zhenhua said.

"The overall goal is to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent from the 2005 base by 2020. Also, we are working to increase renewable energy use to 10 percent by 2010 and increasing forest cover to 20 percent," Xie said at a forum sponsored by US think tank Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP).

On the post-2012 (post-Kyoto Protocol) climate change plan in China, Xie said China will be working according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.

CCAP President Ned Helme said the international community should get proper knowledge about developing countries' efforts to tackle climate change.

Mexico's environment minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada said: "We are also extremely concerned over the consequences, the adverse effects of climate change."

The ministers presented a strong argument for UNFCCC-sponsored climate negotiations later this year instead of US President George W. Bush's meeting yesterday and today for 16 "major emitter" countries.

Bush rejected the 175-nation Kyoto Protocol that requires industrialized nations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and sets an average target of a 5 percent cut below the 1990 emission levels by 2012.

(China Daily September 28, 2007)