By DPA,
Berlin: China Saturday rejected accusations that it had blocked a deal last month at the Copenhagen Climate summit to halt global warming.
At a Berlin conference on the future of farming, Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture Niu Dun said a climate accord required that only a “fair burden” be placed on developing and emerging
economies.
“My view is that the Chinese delegation at the Copenhagen Conference operated responsibly and in a very future-oriented way,” he said at a meeting of farm ministry delegations from 50 nations.
Climate issues have taken centre stage at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA), an event held as part of the 10-day International Green Week trade fair for farm produce in Berlin. Farms are blamed for significant emissions of carbon dioxide.
Niu said China would continue to work hard to fight global warming, and it was in its own interest to deal alertly with the issue since China was “the world’s biggest developing country.”
A series of officials told the GFFA meeting that farmers could be part of the solution to global warming.
German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner and the deputy director of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Alexander Mueller, said one way to help was for farmers could offer deep rock under their land as sites to sequester carbon dioxide.
Ajay Vashee, chairman of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP), warned that it was unfair to abandon farmers to suffer all the negative effects of global warming without government help.
Green Week was meanwhile in full swing on its second day, with 350 out-of-town coaches arriving by midday with people from around Europe eager to see and taste the current season’s farm food quality.