Commitment to fight pollution 'admirable': World Bank chief

As a World Bank president trained in the sciences, Jim Yong Kim feels it is his role to tackle some issues related to the global public good, particularly climate change.

Roughly 70 percent of the work that the World Bank does with China is related to climate change and sustainability, ranging from energy efficiency to the development of carbon trading, Kim said.

"One of the things that most people in the world don't realize is that China has made a huge commitment in terms of reducing its carbon intensity," he said.

The country has set a national target to cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40 to 45 percent between 2005 and 2020.

"That's an incredibly ambitious goal. We applaud China's commitment to that particular issue," Kim said.

Kim said he has witnessed a "renewed sense of urgency" on the part of the Chinese government in tackling not only climate change but also related issues like air pollution.

"There is no question that China is still one of the largest emitters in the world and has to deal with this problem, but the level of ambition is admirable," he said.

He said that the World Bank will help China come up with innovative solutions and achieve strong economic growth with a cleaner approach.

Kim is a Harvard-trained Korean-American physician and anthropologist. He is making his third official visit to China since becoming the 12th president of the World Bank Group in July 2012.