On November 15, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao attended an informal breakfast meeting on climate change in Singapore. Leaders from 18 APEC members, as well as Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen attended the breakfast meeting. Hu emphasized that the UN-sponsored climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen next month was an important meeting of the international community to cooperate on climate change. Pushing for a positive result of the conference conforms to the common interests of all parties, he said. China is ready to work with other participants at the conference to seek positive outcome.

“Today, we are here together to exchange views on climate change,” said Hu, adding that it is conducive for all parties to accumulate consensus, create synergy and push for positive outcome at the Copenhagen conference.

Hu pointed out that climate change is a tough challenge facing the international community and it matters to human survival and development. The international community has taken positive actions in response to climate change. After two years of international negotiations on the implementation of the Bali Roadmap, consensus has been reached on a number of aspects, although there were still some difficulties in the negotiation process. “As time is running out, we should boost confidence and double our efforts to overcome difficulties and seek positive outcomes.”

Hu made two suggestions on how the international community should work to tackle climate change at the next step. Firstly, Hu said the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol had laid the legal foundation for the international community to collaborate on addressing climate change. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities has already become a universally accepted and basic principle for tackling climate change. The "Bali Roadmap" has made clear the requirements and orientation of international cooperation on climate change. Hu said all parties concerned should abide by the above principle and requirements, fully demonstrate political will, turn political will into real action to push forward the process of relevant talks and work to realize the goal of strengthening the implementation of the UNFCCC in a comprehensive, effective and sustainable way.

Secondly, Hu said that in recent years, international talks on implementing the "Bali Roadmap" had made progress and reached consensus on a number of aspects. He said the international community should lock on the consensus and progress and work to reach further consensus on the following aspects. The developed countries should continue to shoulder the duty of adopting mid-term, quantified goals for large-scale emission cut. The developing countries should, according to their specific national conditions and with the support of the developed countries in capital and technological transfer, try their best to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and strive to adapt to climate change. An effective funding mechanism should be established as the developed countries shoulder the responsibility of providing capital support for the developing countries. An effective mechanism should be installed to promote the dissemination and transfer of environment-and-climate-friendly technologies to developing countries and help developing countries improve the capability to address climate change.