Rich nations must give more to offset climate change: China

China's lead climate negotiator has called for rich countries to give more money to offset climate change, as he prepared to lead a delegation to talks in Warsaw this month.

National negotiators are converging on Warsaw for negotiations that will lay the groundwork for a meeting in Paris in 2015, that in turn should set policies to help mitigate human society's impact in raising global temperatures.

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China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases but with average incomes still well below those of developed countries, is keen to prevent any agreement from impacting on its economic growth.

At a 2009 summit in Copenhagen, developed nations promised $100bn a year by 2020 to help fight climate change, but they have failed to agree to a specific date for donor pledges to start.

Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said developing countries have already contributed a majority of emissions reductions, without promised support from developed countries. "This shows developed countries haven't honoured provisions in the convention, while developing countries have taken active actions at home to actively tackle climate change. Especially in China, we haven't got any financial or technology support but we've taken actions actively."

China has pledged to reduce emissions as a percentage of GDP, meaning its absolute level of emissions will still grow.

Chinese banks and regulators signed an accord on green finance this month that is supposed to help more environmentally friendly, but financially risky, projects get capital. A pilot carbon trading scheme is under way in the southern city of Shenzhen, with additional pilots in several other cities.

But China's industrial policies in support of new technology sectors have helped create massive overcapacity that is crippling its solar and wind power manufacturers. Fuelled by easy loans and a supportive industrial policy, they plunged into debt when overseas demand was hit by the global financial crisis.

Mr Xie has earlier said that pinning down the financial commitments would help with negotiations on other issues.