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The UN's climate chief has said she believes countries can
snap the deadlock that has lasted for years and sign up to
fresh and binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases, after
a week of climate talks between nearly 200 countries.
"Countries are now looking at how they might bring about
a second commitment period," climate chief Christiana Figueres
said.
The major players on the global stage have laid out their
positions since the talks opened, with China and the United
States, the two biggest emitters, each waiting for the other
to commit before agreeing to a binding deal.
Canada, Russia and Japan have said they will not renew the
1997 Kyoto Protocol pledges that expire next year, while the
European Union wants to broker a new, global pact.
However, China, which like the United States and India is
not bound by Kyoto's obligations, has helped revive the troubled
Durban talks by saying it could join a legally binding deal
to cut its emissions of the heat-trapping gases.
However, the head of Brazil's delegation, Andre Correa do
Lago, cautioned the focus on a legally binding deal may distract
from what could be achieved, if it means concrete action is
delayed. "Legally binding may, at the end, be more an obstacle
than an advantage," he told a media briefing.
Three UN reports released in the last month showed time is
running out to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that
have led to rising sea-levels threatening to erase some island
states, crop failures, amplifying droughts and intensifying
storms.
Several leading nations - including Japan, Russia and Canada
- have pulled out of the current negotiations and the US has
indicated it will not join in.
Source - The Irish Times
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