In Kyoto Protocol, China was classified as a developing country, and so did not have to take a responsibility of reducing CO2 emission. At the time, US and Australia rejected to ratify the protocol. Several years later, Canada also seceded from it. The problem has always been the discord between developing countries and developed countries. As the end of the Kyoto Protocol term approaches, the world has held many additional UN climate change meeting to decide on what to do for post-Kyoto. Here, I am going to report about 3 recent climate change meetings and China's work in it.

2009 Copenhagen meeting

It received a lot of attention worldwide, but its achievement was disappointing. The discord between developing countries and developed countries was still intensive. China argued that it still do not have to take a responsibility as it is developing country. Developed countries argued that as China is the 2nd largest emitter of CO2, it should take a responsibility.  The only achievement included the long-term goal of limiting the maximum global average temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius about pre-industrial levels, subject to a review in 2015. There was, however, no agreement on how to do this in practical terms. And I found some recent articles predicting that the goal will not be achieved, as developing countries' demand of energy resources has increased a lot. China itself set some goals to reduce greenhouse gas emission, but it did not want any additional overlook from outside.

2010 Cancun meeting

agreements are the  following

-to commit to a maximum temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels, and to consider lowering that maximum to 1.5 degrees in the near future.

-to make fully operational by 2012 a technology mechanism to boost the innovation, development and spread of new climate-friendly technologies;

-to establish a Green Climate Fund to provide financing to projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing countries via thematic funding windows;

on the Cancun Adaptation Framework, which included setting up an Adaptation Committee to promote the implementation of stronger, cohesive action on adaptation.

Still, EU countries argued that the largest emitter of CO2(China & US) must join Kyoto Protocol. Developing countries including China argued that as historical responsibility exists, so they only emphasized on the responsibility of developed countries.

2011 Durban meeting

The UN marked it as an "historic breakthrough to save the planet", that makes up for the collapse of the last high profile attempt for a global deal in Copenhagen in 2009. The 'Durban Platform' will commit all countries to a global deal on cutting carbon emissions by 2015 although it will not come into force until 2020.

It was the first time that the 'Big 3', the US, India and China, that make up almost half of the world's emissions, have agreed to cut emissions as part of a legal treaty.

China; Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation, stated that the People's Republic of China was willing to make binding commitments to limited greenhouse gases in 2020 if they appropriately took into account historical contributions of greenhouse gases by developed countries such as the United States and European states and sustainable economic needs of developing countries such as China and India.