BEIJING, Dec 18: China and other developing countries must place a much greater priority on adapting to climate change, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday.

“For developing countries the adaptation challenge is as important, if not more so, than the mitigation challenge, but there has been less work on adaptation,” Zoellick told reporters at the end of a four-day trip to China.

“For many developing countries the adaptation issue is a crisis today, not an uncertainty for tomorrow.” He made his comments when asked to assess the international deal struck in Bali, over the weekend that set a 2009 deadline to come up with a new treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Amid a debate in Bali between rich and poor nations over commitments to cutting emissions and sharing the cutting-edge technology required to do so, Zoellick said “the terms of any follow-on agreements are for the countries involved”.—AFP