The remarks come in China's first national plan on climate change.
It says that China will cut greenhouse gas emissions by using more wind, nuclear and hydro power, and by making coal-fired plants more efficient.
The plan has been released as China's President Hu Jintao prepares to attend a G8 meeting in Germany, where climate change will be high on the agenda.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a new United Nations' protocol on climate change.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has told the BBC that rich countries must agree firm targets to reduce emissions.
No firm targets
"The first and overriding priorities of developing countries are sustainable development and poverty eradication," says the Chinese plan.
"China will continue to actively tackle climate change issues in accordance with its national sustainable development strategy in the future."
It is estimated that some 200 million Chinese are either unemployed or under-employed.
In explaining the plan, the chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Ma Kai, said rich counties who have already industrialised would instead have to do more to tackle climate change.
Mr Ma said they were responsible for most of the greenhouse gases produced over the past century and had the money to tack the problem.
Mandatory emission caps "would hinder the development of developing countries and hamper their industrialisation", he added.
The BBC's Quentin Somerville in Beijing says China's environmental record is a poor one.
It is already the world's second largest emitter of carbon dioxide and is expected to overtake the US later this year.
Beijing has already said it wants to reduce energy use by a fifth by 2010, deal with heavily polluting factories, and increase the amount of renewable energy it produces.
They are a strong declaration of intentions, but so far China has missed almost every environmental target it has set itself, our correspondent says.
Summit
The Chinese plan is likely to come under discussion at the G8 summit, with Germany calling for tougher emissions levels, while the US has stressed technological innovation as a key to tackle global warming.
US President George W Bush has proposed uniting a group of big emitters who would set non-binding targets by the end of next year.
But some analysts say this has been interpreted as a way of undercutting other initiatives - for example by the G8 or United Nations.
Meanwhile Australia - the only other major economic power apart from US not to have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol - has promised to set up a carbon trading scheme to cut pollution.
Prime Minister John Howard said he would set a target next year for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and also pledged to put in place a carbon trading scheme by 2012.
He promised that Australia's carbon trading scheme would be better than those in place in Europe.
'Tragic'
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of the world's richest countries to agree firm targets in cutting polluting emissions.
In a BBC interview, Mr Ban said it was now up to the richest countries to show leadership when they meet in Germany.
"It will be tragic if we don't take any action," he said.
"My main message is that to galvanise this political will at the leaders level so that we can take necessary action."
The UN secretary-general has made tackling climate change one of his top priorities and called for a meeting of world leaders on the subject in September.
He wants the UN to be in the lead when it comes to agreeing what should replace the Kyoto Protocol, the current agreement curbing greenhouse gases, when it expires in 2012.