According to a China-EU joint statement issued here Monday, China and the European Union will continue to strengthen cooperation on responding to climate change.

The joint statement of the 10th China-EU Leaders' Meeting said leaders of both sides stressed in their meeting the great importance they attached to the issue of climate change, and their willingness to strengthen cooperation to jointly meet the serious challenge of climate change.

"China and the EU are committed to the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level which would prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate interference with the climate system, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities," said the statement.

It said the leaders reviewed the bilateral cooperation under the China-EU Partnership on Climate Change and called for progress to be made, including on research of near-zero emissions of coal power generation technology through carbon capture and storage, as well as development of concrete cooperation projects to strengthen China's participation in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism.

The leaders agreed to step up their efforts to further enhance the bilateral cooperation, including their cooperation on technology development and transfer.

China and the EU agreed to actively implement the rolling work plan of China-EU Partnership on Climate Change covering the period 2008-2009, including cooperation on province-level climate change programs in China, climate change adaptation strategies and public awareness initiatives, said the statement.

The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol and reiterated, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the need for developed countries to continue to take the lead in reducing GHG emissions beyond 2012 and to assist developing countries in enhancing their contributions to addressing climate change.

China and EU are committed to moving forward in the UN forum and called on all parties to actively and constructively participate in UNFCCC Conference in Bali in December 2007, said the statement.

The two sides welcomed the progress achieved in the "Dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate change by enhancing the implementation of the Convention" and agreed to work towards launching a process on a comprehensive post-2012 arrangement at this year's UNFCCC Conference of the Parties in Bali so as to enhance the implementation of the Convention and aim to complete work under this process as soon as possible but no later than 2010.

China and EU also emphasized the importance of speedy and substantive progress in the negotiations of the Ad hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for developed countries beyond 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol and aim to complete work under this process before the end of 2009, agreeing on the importance of the engagement, investment of and provision of incentives to private sector in tackling climate change and on the significant potential economic opportunities of China-EU cooperation in this area.

Both sides consider technology as a major instrument to address climate change and emphasized the importance of a post-2012 agreement to help within the context of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol to make clean technologies accessible and affordable to developing countries by technology transfer, deployment and dissemination as well as to strengthen the global carbon market and to intensify cooperation on the adaptation to the increasing adverse impacts of climate change.

Leaders of both sides witnessed the signing of a framework loan of 500 million euros (some 733 million U.S. dollars) to China from the European Investment Bank to support projects that contribute to combating climate change, said the statement.

The 10th China-EU summit was jointly held on Nov. 28 by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister Jose Socrates of Portugal, which currently holds the European Union (EU)'s rotating presidency, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2007)