Climate Agreement Reached
Package presented by Mexico accepted by delegates.
Compiled by staff
Published: Dec 14, 2010
Mexico, hosting U.N.-sponsored talks addressing climate change worldwide, appears to have broken a log jam. Late last week delegates from 193 nations, meeting in Cancun, Mexico, accepted a package of measures presented by Mexico, aimed at addressing the problem. David Waskow, climate change program director for Oxfam America, says the agreement puts them on a path so the process can keep moving forward.
Mexico's proposal includes all the basic elements of what delegates had set out to achieve at the start of this year's talks, including the establishment of an international "Green Climate Fund" to help developing nations curb their emissions and respond to climate impacts; a framework for compensating rainforest nations for preserving standing forests; a new method for transferring clean-energy technology from industrialized nations to developing ones; an international registry of nations' emission-reduction commitments; and a process for monitoring the fulfillment of those pledges.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa urged ministers to build on the progress her government tried to capture in its proposal. U.S. special climate envoy Todd Stern endorsed the proposal, saying its adoption would put the world forward on a more hopeful path towards a low emissions and sustainable future. It appeared to satisfy the United States, which had pressed hard for a measure to verify whether countries including China and India were making the voluntary emission cuts they have promised to do in the years ahead.
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