Pedestrians wear masks during a heavy smog day in Shanghai. [Photo/China Daily]

Beijing has taken a smart decision by retaining a "retired" minister as China's climate change representative, because he knows well the tough negotiators, such as Todd Stern of the United States, and the cards they are likely to play in the run-up to and at the crucial climate change conference in Paris in December.

Xie Zhenhua (65), a retired minister-level veteran who represented China at climate talks for more than eight years, made a surprising comeback when he officially met with a Swedish climate delegation and UN top official last week. Xie, who "retired" as vice-chairman of National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planning body, in February, will now work with Zhang Yong, former food and drug safety chief and his successor, until the end of the Paris climate talks.

As China's unofficial "special representative on climate change affairs", Xie and Zhang both met with Jan Eliasson, deputy secretary-general of the UN in Beijing on April 9. Xie even met Asa Romson, Sweden's deputy prime minister and climate minister, last week.

His comeback to the frontline about a month after "retirement" indicates that the Chinese leadership respects this "straightforward, kind but tough" veteran negotiator and pins the highest hopes on him at the Paris talks, which is expected to determine the carbon budget of the world between 2020 and 2030.

Xie started his "environmental career" in the early 1980s after graduating from and teaching at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In 1998, he became the youngest minister when Zhu Rongji began his premiership. He moved to the NDRC in 2006, and since then has witnessed tremendous changes in China's climate change policies. For example, China has self-imposed targets on energy use even though it is not supposed to do so as a developing country.