Chinese President Hu Jintao said on Wednesday that his country will take substantial measures to cope with climate change.
Hu made the remarks at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, which gathered leaders from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and the Group of Eight (G8) nations at Toyako, a resort town on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
China is among the countries seriously affected by the negative impacts of climate change, he said in a speech at the meeting.
"When looking at China's emissions, it is necessary to take into account the following three factors," Hu said.
"First, China is a developing country in the process of industrialization and modernization," said the Chinese president.
The country faces imbalances in terms of development between urban and rural areas, among different regions, and between the economic sector and the social sector, and people's living standards are still not high, he said.
China's central task now is to develop the economy and make life better for the people, Hu added.
"Second, China's per capita emissions are relatively low, and are even lower if calculated in accumulative terms," he said.
