UN chief: China playing important role in addressing climate change

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday spoke highly of China's "very important role" in addressing the global challenge of climate change.

Ban made the remarks in an interview with UN-based Chinese journalists before traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark, to push for a global deal on climate change.

The UN Climate Change Conference, which opened Monday and will run through Dec. 18, gathered representatives from 192 countries with the aim to map out a plan to combat climate change over the period of 2012-2020.

"The recent announcement by China to reduce energy intensity by 40 to 45 percent against the level of 2005 was very much appreciated," said Ban.

Recalling a visit to China earlier this year, Ban said he was impressed by the "way the Chinese government and indigenous communities are doing to reduce greenhouse emissions by developing renewable sources of energy, by developing alternate sources of energy."

"Just by changing light bulbs in the amount of 4 billion light bulbs, China is going to reduce energy dependency by 7 or 8 percent," he said. "That is quite remarkable."

"I visited all those solar factories. That was very impressive," he said.

Introducing renewable sources and alternative sources of energy will be "extremely important" for addressing climate change, said the UN secretary-general.
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