Liu Zhenmin, China's special envoy for climate change, has urged the upcoming COP29 United Nations climate change conference to prioritize and address the concerns of developing nations, especially their desperate demand for climate finance.

Stressing the financing issue as the foundation for maintaining mutual trust in global climate multilateral process, Liu said developed countries, aside from materializing their previous promise, should come up with an even more ambitious goal on climate finance for countries from the Global South.

Formerly known as the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29 will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from Nov 11 to 22.

The Chinese official made the remarks during an open forum at the ongoing annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high-level advisory body for the Chinese government, on Friday.

Held in Beijing, the forum is themed Promoting Green Transformation and Contributing to the Global Climate Agenda.

Liu recalled the positive progress parties made in COP28 in the United Arab Emirates last year, as the world was striving to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic crisis.

The conference concluded the first-ever global stocktake, a comprehensive assessment of the world's progress on climate action, with the adoption of the UAE Consensus.

Parties agreed in the conference to take action toward achieving, on a global scale, a tripling of renewable energy capacity by 2030, and to transition away from all fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner in this critical decade to enable the world to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

The UN gathering "initiated the global energy transition process, and sent a strong signal of unity and cooperation to the international community in addressing climate change," Liu stressed.

Many concerns of developing countries, however, were left unresolved, he noted. And so the upcoming COP29 has been depicted as a climate finance conference, as it will make arrangements for post-2025 global climate finance goals.

COP29 should instill even greater confidence and hope in the international community to address global climate ambition issues, and demonstrate that the international community has the means to drive the unprecedented global energy transition to success, he said.

"Only in this way climate ambitions will not be reduced to mere rhetoric or tools for achieving other purposes," he stressed.

One crucial achievement of COP29 ought to be the establishment of a robust New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, and also to promote the implementation of support to developing countries in terms of capacity building and technology, he continued.

"Developed countries should pay adequate attention to the substantial demands of developing countries for climate finance. They should take the lead in providing funds, fulfill their commitment to annually provide $100 billion by 2025, and make up for any shortfalls," he said.

They should also lay out a road map to double adaptation funding, and be prepared for negotiations on a new finance target that builds upon their previous commitment, he added.

As a developing country, China also faces significant financial needs in driving its own efforts to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. But, while China welcomes international climate investment, it has no intention to compete with other developing nations for the limited international climate funds, he emphasized.

"China will continue to provide support within its means to other developing countries through mechanisms such as South-South climate cooperation and the green Belt and Road Initiative," he said.