Exclusive | Planning agency’s Zhang Yong to lead China in crucial Paris climate talks
Challenging tasks ahead for former food and drug safety chief Zhang Yong, appointed to lead China in crucial negotiations in Paris
Former food and drug safety chief Zhang Yong will lead China in talks on a crucial global climate change deal that is set to be reached in Paris in December, the country's former top negotiator Xie Zhenhua told the yesterday.
"Zhang has already been appointed. He will oversee the climate change issues and lead the negotiation," Xie told on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
More than 180 nations are expected to reach a new deal to tackle global warming after 2020 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in December. The European Union has made an official offer to cut carbon emissions by at least 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2030.
Zhang's appointment as deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top planning agency, was announced last month.
He had served as the State Council's deputy secretary general since 2003, oversaw the council's food safety commission from 2010, and was appointed head of the China Food and Drug Administration in 2013.
Zhang had no experience in climate negotiations, but the personnel change would "make no real difference as it will not change China's negotiation stance", a member of China's climate negotiation delegation said on condition of anonymity.
But Greenpeace senior climate and energy campaigner Li Shuo said the change, only months ahead of the Paris talks, was a surprising move for many global political watchers as there were "practical concerns".
