Modest progress for UN talks

Although there has yet to be any concrete agreement following the six day climate summit in Tianjin, UN climate director Christiana Figueres is pleased that progress has been made leading up to the December Cancun meeting.

He hopes to focus on allowing the transfer of technology to developing nations and finding funding for long-term climate goals while putting issues such as mitigation and reporting to the side for now.

While the conference has been hampered by arguments between the two largest GHG emitters, China and the US, other countries have remained constructive, moving forward with the issues at hand.

One such issue is continued progress on a legally binding climate package that is expected to be complete by the December 2011 South Africa summit. Also, many nations, including the EU, have expressed hope that a second commitment period to the Kyoto protocols will be finalized at the Cancun conference.


As the US still lacks domestic legislation for a legally binding climate protocol, the EU has sought to encourage participation from developing countries by committing themselves to set new emission targets after 2012.