CHINESE President Xi Jinping called for rich nations to honor their commitment to provide US$100 billion a year to developing countries to tackle climate change as he and about 150 other world leaders Monday launched an ambitious attempt to hold back the Earth’s rising temperatures.

    Xi told the U.N. climate summit in Paris that developed countries should accept “more shared responsibilities” for limiting global warming and helping poor countries adapt to a climate-afflicted world.

    “Developed countries should honor their commitment of mobilizing US$100 billion each year from 2020 and provide stronger financial support to developing countries afterwards,” Xi said.

    Rich nations pledged at a U.N. summit in Copenhagen in 2009 to muster US$100 billion annually in financial support to poor countries starting in 2020. The money is meant to help them cut greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming, as well as to adapt to rising sea levels, droughts and other potentially catastrophic impacts.

    However, six years later poor nations are frustrated that rich countries have yet to fully commit to the fund.

    The debate over the money highlights a long-standing feud between rich and poor nations over how to distribute responsibility for tackling climate change.

    While China and the U.S. have pledged to work together to fight global warming, Xi made clear that poor nations should not have to sacrifice economic growth.

    Some 150 heads of state and government, including Xi and U.S. President Barack Obama, urged each other to find common cause in two weeks of bargaining to steer the global economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

    They arrived at the talks accompanied by high expectations and armed with promises to act. After decades of struggling negotiations and the failure of a summit in Copenhagen six years ago, some form of landmark agreement appears all but assured.

    Warnings from climate scientists, demands from activists and exhortations from religious leaders have coupled with major advances in cleaner energy sources like solar power to raise pressure for cuts in carbon emissions held responsible for warming the planet.

    Most scientists say failure to agree on strong measures in Paris would doom the world to ever-hotter average temperatures, bringing with them deadlier storms, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels as polar ice caps melt.

    Over the next two weeks, negotiators will hammer out the strongest international climate pact yet. The deal will mark a momentous step in the often frustrating quest for global agreement, albeit one that — on its own — will not be enough to prevent the Earth’s temperatures rising past a damaging threshold.

    Signaling their determination to resolve the most intractable points, senior negotiators sat down Sunday, a day earlier than planned, to begin thrashing out an agreement. They hope to avoid the last-minute scramble and all-nighters that marked past meetings.  (SD-Agencies)