China expects progress at Rio+20 summit

RIO DE JANEIRO - As the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Earth Summit) has entered the final stage of negotiations, China hoped that the participating countries can reach a consensus as soon as possible, a Chinese official said Monday.

"We are still in negotiations at the last minute, I hope the participating parties can further enhance their political wills to eliminate differences and increase consensus, to reach an outcome as soon as possible," said Du Ying, chairman of the Chinese preparatory committee for the forthcoming Rio+20 Earth Summit.

Du expressed his appreciation of Brazil's efforts to accelerate the negotiation process, adding that the draft document proposed by the host country has laid a good foundation for the success of the June 20-22 summit.

He said China is willing to participate in the conference with a positive attitude and to strengthen communication and coordination with Brazil and the concerned parties to promote positive results.

Since the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio, the international community has made some progress in sustainable development, yet it has still faced many difficulties and challenges in recent years, he said.

China looks forward to working with other countries to jointly promote sustainable development with positive and pragmatic results as a clear sign to the world that sustainable development will continue to make progress.

In order to effectively address future challenges, China believes that the final text of the summit must adhere to three principles: First, the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" is the key to finally reaching the outcome document.

Second, the development of society, economy and environmental protection should be balanced, and finally the right of each country to choose its own road of sustainable development according to its circumstances is guaranteed.

He hoped that the upcoming summit would contribute to the commitment already made by some developed countries in the context of sustainable development. Moreover, Du said that developed countries should offer more financial and technical assistance to least developed or underdeveloped countries because they are facing the most difficulties during the current economic crisis.

With the rapid development of the Chinese economy in recent years, some people believe that China has become a well-developed or more developed country and should assume more responsibilities in the field of sustainable development.

However, Du said such an opinion is unjustified, as China's per capita GDP is only 53 percent of the world's average, and there are 122 million people living below the poverty line.

China is indeed in a period of accelerating industrialization and urbanization, but the problems it encountered in this stage have appeared to developed countries in the past two or three hundred years, so the pressure of environmental protection and resource conservation remains high for China, Du said.

Nevertheless, China will unswervingly follow the path of sustainable development and will continue to help underdeveloped countries within its limits to improve their capacity for sustainable development.

The Rio+20, the largest UN conference to be held in the Brazilian city, will bring together leaders from more than 190 nations and reach a series of political agreements to improve people's standard of living and protect the environment.

Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the United Nations is again bringing together governments, international institutions and major organizations to discuss measures to reduce poverty while promoting decent jobs, clean energy and more sustainable and fair use of resources.