China has made huge financial contributions to the global Kyoto compact to cut CO2 emissions and it is unfair to accuse it of taking advantage of the system, a senior Chinese climate change official said on Friday.

In a veiled criticism of current E.U. calls to reform the U.N.-backed carbon credit system known as the clean development mechanism, Gao Guangsheng, the director general of the climate change office at the National Development and Reform Commission, said China was not just getting a free ride.

"I don’t believe the theory that China has benefited the most from the CDM. I think the widespread development of CDM projects in China is an important aspect of China’s contribution (to the fight against climate change)," he told a conference organized by the E.U.

The CDM allows developed countries to meet their carbon reduction commitments by buying U.N.-verified carbon credits generated from clean energy projects in developing nations. Over 60 percent of the total "certified emission reductions" or CERs have originated from China.
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