Climate conference to spur new actions

Issues remain over financing; outline is still incomplete

The Marrakech Climate Conference marked a new start for the global community to turn the Paris Agreement on climate change into action, but negotiations on climate financing will continue as progress on this issue remains slow, the head of the Chinese delegation said on Saturday.

Xie Zhenhua, Chinese climate special envoy, said that overall, the two-week conference, which closed on Saturday morning, was a success.

"Nations that ratified the Paris Agreement reaffirmed their commitments to achieve goals submitted to the United Nations. These have injected confidence at a time when we are moving forward and help accelerate actions across a broad range of issues to tackle climate change challenges," Xie said.

A total of 111 of the 193 parties who sealed the Paris Agreement in December last year had ratified the agreement when the latest conference closed.

However, further negotiations are needed on issues involving the interests of developing countries, Xie said, referring to arrangements for adaptation funding and money for capacity building.

Although the concerns of developing countries were addressed during the meetings, issues on financing have yet to reach a satisfactory outcome, Xie said.

In the Paris Agreement, developed countries pledged to provide $100 billion in funding by 2020 to help developing countries combat climate change.

"The road map proposed by developed countries this year has not yet reached the expectations of developing countries, including transparency and how to calculate the sources of funds," said Gu Zihua, a representative of the Chinese delegation. "Developed nations have yet to clarify the difference between mobilizing and arranging the funds."

Zou Ji, deputy director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy, said that it is crucial to make sure developing countries' demands can be adequately met while implementing the Paris Agreement.