China on Sunday welcomed the outcome of climate change talks in Copenhagen, the day after a deal reached to fight global warming came in for heavy criticism.

“With the efforts of all parties, the summit yielded significant and positive results,” China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, said in a statement.

The Copenhagen Accord, passed this past weekend after two weeks of frantic negotiations, was strongly condemned as a back-door deal that violated United Nations’ democracy, excluded the poor and doomed the world to disastrous climate change.

The agreement was assembled at the last minute by a small group consisting of leaders of the United States, China, India, Brazil, South Africa and major European nations, after it became clear the summit was in danger of failure.

It set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, but did not spell out the important stepping stones — setting global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 — for getting there.

Nor did it identify a year by which emissions should peak, and pledges were made voluntary and free from tough compliance provisions.

Yang, who never specifically mentioned the accord, said the summit had successfully maintained the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility,” which recognized the differing economic circumstances between developing and developed nations.

China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter, has always said rich countries should take the lead in committing to substantial emission reduction targets and provide finance to developing countries battling climate change.

The Copenhagen Accord set out a goal of “jointly mobilizing” $100 billion for developing nations by 2020.

Yang added that the summit took a step forward with regard to developed countries’ mandatory emissions cuts and developing nations’ voluntary mitigation actions.

“Third, it reached broad consensus on the key issues of long-term global targets, funding, technology support [to developing countries], and transparency,” Yang said, according to his statement.

China has pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 based on 2005 levels. AFP