Cancun climate talks reach package of agreements: UN
London (Platts)--13Dec2010/726 am EST/1226 GMT
United Nations climate change talks which concluded over the weekend
in Cancun, Mexico, have yielded several breakthrough agreements on
elements of a post-2012 global climate deal, the UN said Saturday.
Although an all-encompassing post-Kyoto Protocol climate deal was not
reached at this year's gathering, the talks produced agreements on a
number of elements to address the global atmospheric build-up of
greenhouse gases.
The so-called Cancun Agreements have restored some faith in the UN
process as a workable mechanism to address climate change, according to
the UN.
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana
Figueres said Cancun had "done its job."
"Governments have given a clear signal that they are headed towards a
low-emissions future together, they have agreed to be accountable to
each other for the actions they take to get there, and they have set it
out in a way which encourages countries to be more ambitious over time,"
she said.
The package includes an agreement that industrialized country emissions
reduction targets are officially recognized under the multilateral
process, and these countries will develop low-carbon development plans
and strategies for how to meet those targets.
Importantly, countries formally recognized the role of market mechanisms
to achieve emissions reductions, and agreed to report their emissions on
an annual basis.
Developing country voluntary actions to cut emissions were also
officially recognized under the multilateral process, the UN said.
Parties to the talks failed to secure agreement on the future of the
Kyoto Protocol, whose binding emissions reductions for industrialized
countries expire at the end of 2012.
However, countries meeting under the Kyoto pact agreed to continue
negotiations aimed at avoiding a gap between Kyoto and whatever deal
follows.
Countries agreed to bolster Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism to
increase investment in emissions reduction projects in developing
countries, and nations agreed to design a Green Climate Fund under the
UNFCCC to deliver climate finance to developing countries.
The fund will have equal representation from industrialized and
developing countries, the UN said.
Countries also included non-binding decisions made in the chaotic final
hours of last year's talks in Copenhagen to provide $30 billion in
fast-start funding for developing countries to adapt to climate change
up to 2012, into the Cancun agreements.
The underlined their intention to raise $100 billion per year in funding
for developing countries by 2020.
Governments agreed to strengthen action to curb emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries with
technological and financial support, and established a technology
mechanism to support action on climate adaptation and emissions
mitigation.
--Frank Watson, frank_watson@platts.com
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