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China will participate in a legally-binding global climate treaty for the post-2020 period if consensus can be reached among all parties.

“If the international community manages to agree on a legally-binding treaty, China will certainly be on board,” Su Wei, deputy chief of the Chinese delegation, said on the sidelines of the annual United Nations climate change conference in the Polish capital of Warsaw which began on Monday.

“The ultimate goal is to properly deal with climate change through concerted efforts of all parties,” said Su, who is also director of the climate change department of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, calling for exchanges and understanding from all parties for a final agreement.

The two-week negotiation aims to lay the groundwork for a new global climate pact that sets post-2020 targets on emission cuts to make sure it can be signed in 2015 and take effect in 2020.

The new pact is set to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the first global document with legally-binding targets for developed nations whose second commitment period will end in 2020.

Both developed and developing nations have pledged to curb carbon emissions and cope with global warming. The UN determines that developed countries should be held accountable for the accumulated high levels of greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial era.

China has promised to voluntarily cut emissions per unit of economic output by between 40 and 45 percent on 2005 levels by 2020, although it is exempt from emissions cut targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The Durban climate talks in 2011 concluded with an agreement to establish a new global pact setting targets for all parties by 2015 in spite of existing divisions over burden sharing.

Su said China will play an active role in the negotiations and continue to keep its carbon emissions under control throughout the process of its economic restructuring and transformation.

He said the recent Super Typhoon Haiyan “should be a wake-up call for the world to take immediate action in slowing down and adapting to climate change.”

Haiyan killed an estimated 10,000 people in the central Philippines, while leaving 4.4 million people homeless.

For the period from 2013 to 2020, developed countries are obliged to further cut carbon emissions as well as provide funding and technologies to help developing nations handle challenges caused by climate change, Su said. “Finance holds the key to the success of the Warsaw conference,” Su said, urging developed countries to keep promises made in previous climate talks.

Developed countries have agreed to jointly provide US$100 billion per year by 2020 for developing countries to better cope with climate change.