The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mr. Zhang Gaoli, Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China, on the eve of the Climate Change Summit.

In a short ceremony preceding the meeting Mr. Zhang handed over a 30 meter land-cover dataset to the UN and the Secretary-General delivered a short speech expressing his gratitude.

The Secretary-General welcomed Mr. Zhang's visit to the UN for attending the Climate Change Summit as the special envoy of President Xi Jinping. He stressed the importance of China demonstrating its leadership around the goal of concluding the climate change negotiations by the end of next year. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli introduced China's action plan for dealing with climate change as well as Beijing's targets for reducing emission of carbon dioxide which he will further elaborate at the Summit.

The Secretary-General thanked China for its valuable and timely contributions toward combating Ebola as well as for its contribution to peacekeeping in South Sudan and toward political dialogue in Afghanistan.