Brazil, South Africa, India, China Officials Discuss Climate Change

  

BEIJING (NNN-XINHUA) -- Officials from Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) have opened a two-day meeting here to discuss climate change.

Xie Zhenhua, Vice-Minister of China's National Development and Reform Commission, is leading a Chinese delegation to the meeting, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily press briefing Monday.

"The meeting will focus on the prospects and major issues of the Durban climate change conference," Hong added.

With the Durban climate change conference set to take place from Nov 28 to Dec 9, Hong said the focus would be the extension of the Kyoto Protocol and the commitment of developed countries for the protocol's next period.

The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 2008 to 2012.-- NNN-XINHUA