Never assume that mitigating climate change is beyond our ability. This is the attitude of the Chinese government, which sees climate change as a major issue concerning the country's overall economic and social development and a common concern for the international community.

The white paper outlining China's policies and actions for addressing climate change, which was published on Tuesday, describes the positive results achieved in promoting low-carbon development during 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period: the country's energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped 19.1 percent from that of 2005 accumulatively, which is equivalent to a reduction of 1.46 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

It also sets out the objectives and tasks for addressing climate change during the next five years: carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 17 percent and energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16 percent as compared with 2010, and the capacity of carbon sinks will be increased to control greenhouse gas emissions. The acreage of new forests will increase by 12.5 million hectares.

For such a populous developing country as China, the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection has never been so intense.

That 70 percent of China's rivers have been polluted to different degrees reveals the propensity of many local governments to prioritize economic growth at the expense of environmental protection during the last two decades.

That explains why the central government put forward the task of changing the economic growth pattern in 2007 in order to realize sustainable development.

The government and the people realize that economic growth at the cost of the environment not only contributes to climate change, it's also detrimental to the country's long-term development.

That the Ministry of Environmental Protection has blocked 32 major projects in the past 10 months from going ahead because of their environmental impact sends the message that the central government means what it says in its plan for addressing climate change.

When glaciers are melting at a faster rate than they used to and sea levels are rising at a higher rate than before, when extreme weather conditions are occurring more frequently than they used to and the average temperature is rising, human beings desperately need all countries to do whatever they can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But developed countries need to understand the difficulties their developing counterparts face in reducing greenhouse emissions while striving to improve the lives of their people.

They should also know that developing countries such as China are in urgent need of state-of-the-art technology to help them in their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment.

Whatever the outcome of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, which begins at the end of this month, China will spare no effort in fulfilling its plan to reduce greenhouse emissions.

China is aware of the challenges brought about by climate change and will adhere to the path of sustainable development.

(China Daily 11/23/2011 page8)