UN climate official: Tough tasks ahead

By Li Xing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-12-19 23:12

COPENHAGEN: The political accord that the nations acknowledge at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP15, "is impressive" with a number of "significant elements", Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of UN's agency in charge of coordinating global effort to tackle climate change, UN Framework on Climate Change, said at COP15's last press conference held Saturday afternoon.

He explained that the discussion of the draft accord was led by Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and joined by US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, with ministers from some 20 other countries, including China, Brazil and India.

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It set the goal for limiting the temperature rise by 2 degrees Celsius, obtained commitment of greenhouse emission cuts by developed countries, engagement of developing countries to mitigate global warming and financial pledges from developed countries to help the most vulnerable countries, de Boer said.

He also admitted the shortfalls of the accord as it is not legally-binding.

It failed to pin down the emission cut targets by industrialized countries as well as developing countries, he said.

The financial pledge has not specified how the rich countries are going to divide the share and where actually the money will come from.

"What is put in place is a letter of intent, a willingness to move forward," he said, adding that it has also left a lot of work for the nations to do next year in Mexico, where COP16 will be held.

He expressed his frustration that two years' negotiations with nine meetings and several summits have resulted in a document that should make people all "conscious of huge challenges that lie ahead of us."

While negotiations move forward, "the science does not move," he said, meaning that the window of opportunity to be able to slow down the global warming before it is too late is getting smaller and smaller, he said.