BEIJING (AFP) — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told China on Tuesday to accept its global responsibilities on climate change, as he began a three-day visit to the world's most populous nation.
"It is important that we have China on board for this common effort to address climate change," Ban told reporters just before leaving Tokyo for the Chinese capital.
"Now China is also a very important global power. They have a global responsibility."
Ban, a former foreign minister of South Korea, is due to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday as well as China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
Hu is due to travel next week to Japan for the Group of Eight summit in Japan, where an "outreach" event including China and other nations on July 9 will focus on climate change.
Ban has already said he would press the G8 to tackle climate change.
China and the United States are the world's two biggest emitters of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Ban's visit to China also comes after North Korea handed in a key declaration outlining its atomic activities on Thursday last week.
The declaration was part of a landmark six-nation deal reached last year, in which North Korea agreed to disable nuclear plants at its Yongbyon nuclear power plant in return for aid and diplomatic recognition.
The North on Friday also destroyed the cooling tower of its Yongbyon facility.
"As a person who has been directly involved in this before I became the Secretary General, I feel personally very much encouraged, and officially as the Secretary General, again I am very much encouraged," Ban said.
"I do really hope that the participants in this process will really seize this momentum, including Japan and South Korea, to further reconcile with North Korea."
Ban was due to make a speech focusing on climate change at Beijing's Foreign Affairs University later on Tuesday.
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