Little progress at climate talks

• 13 years ago (2010-10-13)
• Junior Isles

Asia 850 North America 999

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A United Nations meeting on climate change ended in Tianjin, China, with no consensus on key issues such as emissions mitigation and transparency.

Christiana Figueres, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), said some progress had been made in the six days of meetings but did not give details of the agreements that were reached. “I would dare say that this week has actually gotten us closer to a structured set of decisions that can be agreed in Cancun," said Figueres.

The head of the US delegation, Jonathan Pershing, noted there was some progress on issues like financing, technology transfer and forests, but that other issues remain unresolved.

"In particular, we're disappointed that we made very little progress on the key issue that confronts us – how to reflect our commitments and actions, and agree on the provisions on reporting to each other on those commitments and actions," he said.

Pershing said the US and China work well together on climate change but acknowledged that the two countries have disagreements in global settings.

In a speech in the United States, American climate change envoy Todd Stern said Beijing could not insist rich nations take on fixed targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions while China and other big emerging nations adopt only voluntary domestic goals.

The head of the Chinese delegation, Su Wei, criticised Stern's comments as an attempt to blame China and other developing countries.

Su said China believes developed countries should undertake legally binding emissions reductions targets and provide technological and financial support to developing countries under a dual-track system.

The focus of the international climate change effort now moves to Mexico, for the COP16 conference that begins at the end of November.