However China has a population of more than 1.3 billion people, compared with around 300 million in the United States.

"China's aggregate emission is large. This is because China has the largest population in the world, but China's per capita emission level is very low," Yang said.

He also repeated China's long-held position that developed countries are mainly responsible for the climate change problem.

"Climate change is mainly attributable to the long-term emissions by developed countries in the past and their current high per capita level of emissions," said Yang.

Yang also indicated that a large part of China's emissions was the result of manufacturing products that eventually are bought by consumers in Western countries, leading to what he termed "transfer emission".

"I hope when people use high-quality yet inexpensive Chinese products, they will also remember that China is under increasing pressure of transfer emission," he said.

United Nations scientists and environmentalist have warned that, regardless of who is to blame, there will be devastating consequences for the world unless all countries take urgent action to fight climate change.  Source