China's special representative for climate change affairs Xie Zhenhua speaks at a side event at the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland, Dec. 13, 2018. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday hailed China's leadership in tackling climate change, saying that China is "one of the few countries on track to meet its Paris commitment." (Xinhua/Chen Xu)

KATOWICE, Poland, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday hailed China's leadership in tackling climate change, saying that China is "one of the few countries on track to meet its Paris commitment."

Gore, founder and chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a climate change advocacy group, said China has already exceeded some of its own targets on renewables.

China has become "a global leader in financing renewable energy," having accounted for 40 percent of global clean energy investment in calendar year 2017, Gore noted.

The former U.S. vice president, now one of the world's most prominent climate activists, made the remarks at a side event at the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland.

The two-week conference, which runs until Friday, aims to finalize the implementation guidelines of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and provide clarity on how to carry out the accord fairly for all participating countries.

COP24 is considered the most important meeting since the Paris deal set the goal of keeping global warming below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing efforts for the tougher goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

China invested over 40 billion U.S. dollars in clean energy around the world in 2017 from all sources, Gore said.

"Remarkably, China also accounted for around 60 percent of all global solar cell production, so the world would not be as far along as it is in solving the climate prices except for what China has done," he added.

China ranks first in the world in clean energy investment with rapid growth of wind and solar energy in nine consecutive years, according to the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Thanks to increased investment in green energy, China's carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product, declined in 2017 by 46 percent from the level in 2005, meeting the target ahead of schedule of a 40-45 percent drop by 2020.

Gore also noted that China has invested in a range of additional fields, including wind power, electric cars and buses.

China has been the world's largest new energy vehicle (NEV) market for three consecutive years, with some 777,000 NEVs sold in 2017 alone.