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Mexico, UN see some progress in climate talks |
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N058480.htm
Talks over new accords to fight climate change have made progress on some issues ahead of a global summit in Cancun, Mexico, later this month but organizers downplayed on Friday the chances of a breakthrough.
Hosts Mexico and the United Nations offered few details on the progress after two days of meetings in Mexico City but said they were optimistic a package of agreements to drive forward the process would be reached in Cancun.
"Governments have become aware there is no magic solution, there is no ultimate agreement that will solve everything but that this is a gradual process that has to be done step by step," Christiana Figueres, the United Nations' top climate official, said at a news conference.
Figueres and Mexican officials said progress had been made on setting up funding for developing nations to cope with the effects of climate change and fund clean development as well as the thorny issue of measuring and verifying countries emissions of greenhouse gases but that a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol was farther off.
Prospects for the Cancun summit have dimmed in recent months amid a near-deadlock in the 194-nation talks ahead of the meeting.
The Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main tool for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, expires at the end of 2012. Talks in Copenhagen last year foundered in part over wide disagreements between over how deeply and how fast rich countries should cut their own emissions beyond 2012.
More than 120 nations agreed in Copenhagen to find a way to limit the rise in average global temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) but significant differences remain over how to achieve that goal.
Losses by President Barak Obama's Democratic Party in the U.S. congressional elections this week has further dented expectations of significant accords in Cancun.
A lack of U.S. legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions may hit plans to raise a promised $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations cope with climate change. That plan partly hinges on curbs on emissions to push up carbon prices.
Mexican officials have tried to remain optimistic, however, pointing to renewed trust between negotiators after the acrimonious end to the last climate summit in Copenhagen.
The slow pace of the U.N. talks has prompted speculation that smaller groups, such as the Group of 20 or the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum (MEF) may emerge as possible avenues to agree climate action, a move opposed by the United Nations as well as many small countries that stand to be the worst hit by climate change. (Reporting by Robert Campbell; Editing by Eric Beech)
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