Wen Jiabao says snubbed at Copenhagen climate meet

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao today disclosed he was snubbed at the Copenhagen climate change conference in December last year as he was not notified of a key meeting of a group of countries on the eve of the summit of leaders.

The diplomatic snub against the Chinese delegation during the summit to tackle global warming was "still a mystery," Wen, 67, told a press conference here after the conclusion of the annual session of the Chinese Parliament.

The premier, who was heading the Chinese delegation at the meet, said he and his team had not received any invitation to a small-scope meeting among several countries' leaders on December 17, though Beijing's name was mentioned in the list of participants.

"We haven't received any explanation until now (about not being notified of the meeting). It's still a mystery to me."     

Wen made the unusually candid remarks after he was asked to comment on his decision not to attend the key meeting before the December 18 summit, a move which was being perceived as "arrogant."

"It still perplexes me why some people keep trying to make an issue about China (in this regard)," he said.

Wen said he learnt from a European leader, at a banquet hosted by the Danish Queen on December 17, about the meeting that was to be held later in the evening and then found out China was on the list of the meeting's participating nations.

"I was shocked as I had received no notification that China was invited," he said. China, the largest emitter of the greenhouse gases, was blamed by many delegates at the UN-sponsored meet for the failure of the Copenhagen talks to produce any binding agreement.

Negotiators, led by US president Barack Obama, attempted to salvage the talks at the last minute with a voluntary, non-binding Copenhagen Accord.

China, which had teamed up other fast developing countries like India, Brazil and South Africa, had contended tat developing nations should not be subjected to the same limits on carbon emissions as developed States such as the US.

However, Wen said China would continue to work with the international community to advance the efforts to tackle the climate change.

He said he wrote to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon and Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen at the end of
January, expressing in clear-cut terms that Beijing highly commends and supports the Copenhagen Accord.

China recently once again wrote to the United Nations, saying it fully backed the Copenhagen Accord, he added.

"The issue of climate change concerns human survival, the interests of all countries, and equity and justice in our international communities," he said.

"We are fully justified to stick to the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities,'" he said.

China has pledged to lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 40 to 45% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.