Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is also South Africa's foreign minister, said the 194-party conference had agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime to enforce their commitments to control greenhouse gases.
"We came here with plan A, and we have concluded this meeting with plan A to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren to come," Nkoana-Mashabane said.
"We have made history," she said.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said the deal represents "an important advance in our work on climate change".
"This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about."
Delegates agreed to start work next year on the new treaty to be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020.
The process for doing so, called the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, would "develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force" that would be applicable under the UN climate convention.
However, key components of Sunday's accord remain to be hammered out, and observers say the task will be arduous. Thorny issues include the still-undefined legal status of the accord and apportioning cuts on emissions among rich and poor countries.
Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for another five years under the accord adopted in the port city of Durban.
For the first time, it would bring all the major emitters, including China and India, unto the same legally binding roof.
Until now, developing giants have had no such constraints on their carbon pollution.
No comments:
Post a Comment