“The road map for doubling global adaptation funding is still unclear, which is not conducive to building mutual trust between the north and the south,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning said, referring to funds for poorer countries already affected by climate change.

“Global climate governance has a long way to go,” she added, saying “developed countries have still not fulfilled their commitment to providing US$100 billion in climate funding to developing countries every year”.

China attached “great importance to this meeting and fully supports Egypt in hosting it successfully”, she said.

China – the world’s biggest polluter – at the summit rejected the idea that it should no longer be considered a developing country, though it is now the world’s second biggest economy.

The issue was at the heart of a contentious debate at COP27 on establishing a fund to compensate poorer countries already devastated by the fallout from global warming.

The UN climate summit – which wrapped up yesterday – ultimately agreed on the creation of that fund.

But it failed to push ahead on further cutting emissions in order to keep alive the aspirational goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels.