(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-26 17:31

BEIJING -- Chinese President Hu Jintao and French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced after their talks on Monday the releasing of a China-France joint statement on responding to climate change and the establishment of a partnership between the two countries in this regard.

According to the joint statement, the first of its kind issued between China and another country, China and France both reiterated their commitments to the aims, principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The two sides will establish a bilateral consultation mechanism and hold consultations once a year in turn in the two countries, to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on climate change, in the principles of Common and Differential Liability, respective capability and equity.

The two sides pledged in the joint statement to strengthen cooperation in the relevant fields, including bio-diversity, water resources, desertification, natural disasters, forests, garbage treatment, pollution prevention and environment-friendly economic measures, and promote the cooperation on the development, extension, application and transfer of technologies.

The two countries will cooperate on the major technologies of energy saving, renewable energy, hydrogen energy and fuel battery, clean coal and nuclear power for civil use.

The statement said the two countries will encourage the establishment of joint ventures to encourage technological innovation on responding to climate change, and will also encourage their enterprises and financial organizations to participate in more climate change and sustainable development cooperation projects of each other.

The two countries will promote world attention to the climate change issue and devote to a series of projects on the research on climate change, and increase the possibility of common cooperation with other countries, in a bid to benefit the least developed countries, especially African countries.

The two countries promised to attend a meeting of contracting parties to the UN Convention and Kyoto Protocol, scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia.

Sarkozy hailed the releasing of the joint statement as a "significant and unprecedented thing".