UN climate change talks in Cancun close in on deal
Baku, December 11 (AZERTAC). Agreement at the UN climate summit in Cancun appears to be close, with most delegations hailing compromise texts drawn up by the Mexican hosts.
Only Bolivia, with some support from Cuba, raised objections, but it is not clear if they will block consensus.
The draft texts say deeper cuts in carbon emissions are needed, but do not establish a mechanism for achieving the pledges countries have made.
It also sets up a fund to help poor countries cope with climate change.
Delegates cheered speeches from governments that had caused the most friction during negotiations - Japan, China, even the US - as one by one they endorsed the draft.
The Green Climate Fund is intended to raise and disburse $100bn (£64bn) a year by 2020 to protect poor nations against climate impacts and assist them with low-carbon development.
A new Adaptation Committee will support countries as they establish climate protection plans.
And parameters for funding developing countries to reduce deforestation are outlined.
But the deal is a lot less than the comprehensive agreement that many countries wanted at last year`s Copenhagen summit and continue to seek. It leaves open the question of whether any of its measures, including emission cuts, will be legally binding.
"Overall, we`ve moved on from Copenhagen - we can leave that ghost behind - it`s another mood, another tone," said Tara Rao, senior policy adviser with environmental group WWF.
"There`s enough in it that we can work towards next year`s meeting in South Africa to get a legally binding agreement there."
And Dean Bialek, an adviser to the Marshall Islands, described the draft deal as "a game-changer".
"The multilateral climate regime is now back on track," he said.
"A new legally binding deal to complement the Kyoto Protocol by covering all major emitters is now well within sight."
The final day of the two-week summit had dawned with low expectations of a deal.
But ministers conducted intensive behind-the-scenes diplomacy to formulate texts that all parties could live with.
Russia and Japan have secured wording that leaves them a possible route to escape extension of the Kyoto Protocol`s legally binding emission cuts, while strongly implying that the protocol has an effective future - a key demand of developing countries.
The Green Climate Fund will initially use the World Bank as a trustee - as the US, EU and Japan had demanded - while giving oversight to a new body balanced between developed and developing countries.
Developing countries will have their emission-curbing measures subjected to international verification only when they are funded by Western money - a formulation that seemed to satisfy both China, which had concerns on such verification procedures, and the US, which had demanded them.
"What we have now is text that while not perfect, is certainly a good basis for moving forward," said Todd Stern, the US climate envoy.
"So let us do what it takes to get this deal done and put the world on a path to a low emission and more sustainable pathway."
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