氣候大會閉幕 未籤減排協議

在墨西哥海濱城市坎昆舉行的聯合國氣候談判大會於週六閉幕，各國在對抗氣候變化方面僅做出少量承諾，並同意爲貧困國家提供更多資金，但有關大規模減排的艱難協議要到明年纔有可能達成。根據坎昆會議達成的協議，各國將成立一個綠色氣候基金，在2020年前向貧困國家每年提供1000億美元的援助資金；同時各國還同意採取措施保護熱帶雨林，分享清潔能源技術，協議還表示要將全球氣溫相對於前工業化時代的升幅控制在2攝氏度以內。但在如何延續《京都議定書》的關鍵問題上，本次大會沒有取得重大進展。協議也沒有具體闡明如何籌集綠色氣候基金的每年1000億美元的援助資金。明年的氣候大會將在南非舉行。

The world's governments agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change and to give more money to poor countries, but they put off until next year tough decisions on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The deal includes a Green Climate Fund that would give $100 billion a year in aid to poor nations by 2020, measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies.

Ending a marathon session of talks in the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, almost 200 countries also set a target of limiting a rise in average world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) over pre-industrial times.

But there was no major progress on how to extend the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges almost 40 rich nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The failure to resolve the central problem of emissions dismayed environmental groups. It was also unclear how the $100 billion a year for the Green Climate Fund will be raised.

The first round of Kyoto expires in 2012, it does not include China and the United States -- the world's two biggest emitters -- and there is no consensus over whether developing countries should have binding targets to cut emissions or whether rich countries have more to do first.

The main success in Cancun after two weeks of talks was simply preventing the collapse of climate change negotiations, promoting support for a shift to low carbon economies and rebuilding trust between rich and poor countries on the challenges of global warming.

Major players were relieved there was no repeat of the acrimonious failure seen at the Copenhagen summit last year, but they warned there was still a long way to go. The Cancun accord builds on a non-binding deal by 140 nations in Copenhagen.

"The most important thing is that the multilateral process has received a shot in the arm, it had reached an historic low. It will fight another day," Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told Reuters. "It could yet fail."

"We have a long, challenging journey ahead of us. Whether it's doable in a short period of time, to get a legally binding deal, I don't know," the European Union's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said of a deal beyond 2012.

U.S. President Barack Obama, whose domestic plans to legislate cuts in greenhouse emissions have stalled, said the Cancun meeting was a success and advances the world's response to climate change.

Carbon offset markets worth $20 billion depend on Kyoto emissions caps to drive developed countries to pay for cuts in greenhouse gases in developing nations as a cheaper alternative to cutting their own greenhouse gases.

The Cancun agreement would "build upon" such markets, giving them some support despite the doubt over Kyoto itself.

Abyd Karmali, global head of carbon markets for the Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the deal lays the foundation for progress.

But experts said that current pledges for curbs in greenhouse gas emissions were too weak for the 2 Celsius goal.

Existing government policies will lead to a rise in world temperatures of about 3.6 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, according to Niklas Hoehne, director of energy and climate policy at consultancy Ecofys.

The agreement reached on Saturday set no firm deadlines for an elusive legally binding accord to succeed Kyoto. The next major global climate talks will be in South Africa at the end of 2011 and ministers will not meet on Kyoto before then, although lower-level negotiations are possible.