Economic development is still a priority for China as it has to enable the 1.3 billion people to live decent lives, Su Wei, director of the climate change department of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at the International Cooperative Conference on Green Economy and Climate Change.

        The "high carbon" characteristic rooted in Chins's energy structure would not be fundamentally changed in a short term as the development and use of clean energy such as wind and solar power started late in China, he said.

        Unreasonable industrial structure and relatively backward industry technology also made China's carbon emission reduction drive difficult , said Su.

        But he also said China has stepped up efforts to curb carbon emission since it vowed in last November to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with 2005 levels.