Han Zheng meets with United Nations Secretary-General Guterres

Xinhua News Agency, Antalya, Turkey, November 10 (Reporter Fu Yunwei) On November 10, local time, President Xi Jinping’s Special Representative and Vice President Han Zheng met with United Nations Secretary-General Guterres during the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) Leaders’ Summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Antalya, Turkey.

Han Zheng conveyed President Xi Jinping’s cordial greetings to Guterres. Han Zheng said that China attaches great importance to the issue of climate change. Last year, President Xi Jinping announced China’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution, clearly stating that it would “strive to do better”, reflecting China’s firm determination and maximum efforts to address climate change. This year China has also proposed goals such as reaching 50% of non-fossil energy power generation and 35% of final energy consumption by 2030. China focuses on setting goals and implementing actions, emphasizing that words must be true and actions must be resolute, and will continue to provide valuable stability and certainty for global climate governance.

Han Zheng said that China works with the United Nations to carry out international cooperation on climate change, firmly safeguards and fully implements the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, vigorously carries out South-South cooperation on climate change, and actively responds to the National Early Warning Initiative. Currently, the global response to climate change faces many challenges. In particular, developing countries face difficulties such as shortage of funds, technological backwardness and insufficient capabilities in implementing their nationally determined contributions, which need to be jointly solved by the international community. China looks forward to COP31 achieving new progress and consensus under the leadership of Mr. Secretary-General.

Guterres asked Han Zheng to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping. Guterres said that China is an important pillar of multilateralism and a key supporter of the United Nations. China keeps its word in addressing climate change, and its actual actions always exceed its commitments. As the world leader in renewable energy, China has made substantial contributions to the decline of global greenhouse gas emissions. The current global response to climate change is in a difficult moment. The United Nations' actions highly rely on China's contribution and support. We look forward to further close collaboration with China to promote COP31 to send a positive signal to the world, make joint decisions and efforts, effectively reverse the trend of rising global temperatures, and better respond to the challenge of climate change.