CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS `BACKSLIDE` AT BONN

07.08.2010 [17:35]
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Baku, August 7 (AZERTAC). Global climate change talks have moved backwards since last year, say negotiators from both rich and poor nations at discussions in Germany.

The US envoy said some countries had "walked away" from commitments made at Copenhagen last year to contain greenhouse gas emissions.

But the top UN climate official, Christiana Figueres, said progress had been made towards an eventual deal.

Negotiators are working towards the next climate summit in November.

There is one last preparatory meeting, in Tianjin, China, in October, to draft a negotiating text before the summit in Cancun, Mexico.

"At this point, I am very concerned," said chief US negotiator Jonathan Pershing at the conclusion of a week of talks in Bonn.

"Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over this week is that some countries are walking back from progress made in Copenhagen, and what was agreed there."

Mr Pershing said some of the major developing countries were backing away from commitments to slow the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, saying such controls should only apply to industrialised countries.

He warned that record global temperatures, devastating floods in Pakistan and forest fires in Russia were "consistent with the kind of changes we could expect from climate change, and they will get worse if we don`t act quickly".

CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS `BACKSLIDE` AT BONN

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