China is supporting the position of the Philippines and other developing countries that they should be exempted from contributing funds for the worldwide anti-climate change even as the financing problem has been seen as the toughest issue that could disrupt the international global warming conference next week in Copenhagen.

In a letter to Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia, Yu Qintai, China’s special representative to the climate change negotiations, said his government agrees with the position of the former House speaker that developing countries “should not be required to provide funds in any form” in the worldwide climate change efforts.

“The financing provided by the developed countries to developing countries should be additional, adequate and predicable, without setting any pre-conditions,” Yu said.

The Chinese government’s position was made known to De Venecia after he sent letters to President Hu Jin Tao and Premiere Wen Jiabao proposing the implementation of “debt-for-environment” proposal wherein creditor states would convert debt-service payments of debtor countries to finance anti-climate change projects.

“These projects would include massive reforestation, water conservation, alternative energy, mass housing, health education social infrastructure and anti-poverty projects,” De Venecia said.

Countries like the Philippines stand to gain in the proposal because its debt service payments may be cut in half and use the amount representing 50 percent reduction in financing the said projects.

Yu said De Venecia was correct in pointing out that the financial component of the climate change preparation efforts “could make or break the Copenhagen Conference” which is expected to be attended by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“The Copenhagen climate change conference is just days away. China, together with the Philippines, would like to promote the conference to achieve an outcome that accords with the interests of the developing countries, and make contributions in protecting the climate and the human kind,” Yu explained.

In his letter to the Chinese leaders, De Venecia said the Philippines, being among the highly-indebted countries, is still struggling to recover from the two super-typhoons that devastated the country.

The former House leader said he believes the most “difficult aspect” in the Copenhagen negotiations is that newly-industrializing countries “are unwilling to accept internationally binding emission reduction targets without financial or technical compensation to cover the economic costs of achieving these targets.”

De Venecia, chairman of the Centrist Democrat International and founding chairman of the International Conference of Asian Political Parites, offered the “debt-for-environment” scheme as a “helpful” solution to this expected controversy in next week’s conference.

“Our proposal is simple. It offers creditor states and lending institutions the option of converting as much as 50 percent of the year debt-service payments they receive into investor equity in anti-climate change programs in their debtor countries,” he said.