SHANGHAI -- China issued a report ahead of the opening of global climate change talks to outline its achievements in battling climate change that urges industrialized countries to do more.

The report, released last week by China's National Development and Reform Commission, is part of the nation's strategy to get the upper hand in the United Nations' climate change conference, which begins today in Doha, Qatar. China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, faces rising pressure to accept an emissions limit that is not imposed on any developing country based on the Kyoto Protocol.

In the report, China tried to convince the world that it has already taken a big step in limiting emissions. The nation highlighted its success in restructuring a carbon-intensive economy, in increasing the share of renewable energy in its power mix and in implementing new solutions to prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.

While emphasizing China's own progresses, Xie Zhenhua, a Chinese climate envoy as well as deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, called upon developed nations to play a bigger role in combating climate change.

"Considering historical responsibility and current capacity, it is developed nations which should exert more efforts to reduce emissions. But they haven't done that," Xie said in a news conference. "We hope that developed nations will raise their emissions reduction efforts before 2020."

For China, according to Xie, its efforts in reducing emissions could only grow. The long list of driving forces includes China's vulnerability to climate change, rising pressures to reform its energy and environmental fronts, and its desire to lead in future trade competition where low-carbon technologies and industries are expected to be the cornerstone.

Ambitious actions at home

Already, China cut its carbon dioxide emission for each unit of economic output by 20 percent in 2010 compared with 2005 levels. The nation pledged to achieve another 17 percent reduction between 2010 and 2015.

Part of its plan is achieving a low-carbon transformation in industry with the help of carrot-and-stick policies. In 2011 alone, the government here poured 13.5 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) into helping factories upgrade technologies. At the same time, it ordered cement works, steel mills and other power-hungry factories to shut down inefficient capacity.

The nation also speeded up the phaseout of aging machinery, subsidized energy-saving product sales and piloted low-carbon transitions in more cities. Meanwhile, retrofitting factories and buildings saved more than 17 million tons of coal last year.

Besides that, China is poised to test a new market mechanism to reduce carbon emissions with five cities and two provinces selected to pilot emissions trading ready to operate their regional carbon markets from next year, according to the report.

In addition, environmental changes are also being used to combat climate change. The report says China's grasslands, forests, wetlands and conservation tillage were all expanding, in a move to lock more carbon into vegetation and soil.

Staying cautious over global negotiations

However, unlike its ambitious emissions reduction moves at home, China appears to take a modest position in the global fight against climate change.

Xie, China's top climate envoy, argued that industrialized nations caused climate change and should take the lead in fighting it. He also added that China's economic development still lags far behind the level at which industrialized nations reached their emissions peak. Therefore, "it is unfair and unreasonable to ask China to cap its total emissions at this moment," Xie said.

But he agreed to negotiate a timeline for China's legally binding commitments in the upcoming climate change talks. Xie also promised that China will meet its own emissions reduction target, which is to cut carbon emissions per unit of economic output by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

Besides reducing its own emissions, Xie said, China has also sponsored other developing countries' efforts to mitigate climate change. That indicates China will follow its previous position of pressuring the developing world to do more.

Speaking Wednesday as the report was released, Xie also mentioned that China will not participate in a E.U. system that will charge for greenhouse gas emissions from flights into and out of Europe. Instead, he urged the international community to meet up and negotiate rules to lower emissions in the aviation sector.

Compared with imposing a carbon tax or launching a cap-and-trade system, easier fixes seem to be more palatable for Chinese negotiators. Xie said that in an airport located in central China, retrofitting facilities alone led to a one-fifth cut in its energy usage, an indicator that its carbon emissions will also go down.