Climate conference approves landmark deal

Associated Press ^ | Dec 10, 2011 8:42 PM EST | unattributed

[Hunton Peck]

DURBAN, South Africa (AP) -- The president of a U.N. climate conference has announced agreement on a program mapping out a new course by all nations to fight climate change over the coming decades.

The 194-party conference 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. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

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 Sunday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DURBAN, South Africa (AP) - Diplomats frazzled by sleeplessness debated into the early hours of Sunday at a U.N. conference over a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades.

South Africa's foreign minister and chairman of the 194-party conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, told delegates that failure to agree after 13 days of work would be an unsustainable setback for international efforts to control greenhouse gases.

"This multilateral system remains fragile and will not survive another shock," she told a full meeting of the conference, which had been delayed more than 24 hours while ministers and senior negotiators labored over words and nuances.

The proposed Durban Platform offered answers to problems that have bedeviled global warming negotiations for years about sharing the responsibility for controlling carbon emissions and helping the world's poorest and most climate-vulnerable nations cope with changing forces of nature.

The package must be approved by consensus, and no vote will be called. Determined opposition from even a small group of countries would unravel...

[catnipman]

LOL! Yep, a hard-fought, far-reaching accord to start negotiations on something to take effect in 2020 and won’t compel emissions targets! Only cost tens of millions of dollars for these useless eaters to meet in the fun and sun to arrive at this momentous agreement! AND they can keep on meeting until at least 2020!

‘Oh, and the “The good news is we avoided a train wreck,” said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure.’ Well, in that case I’d hate to see the results they consider to be a train-wreck!

[Enchante]

“Durban Platform” — sounds like the greenie-weenies realized the most they could hope for was a “platform” for continued propaganda campaigns..... they could not come away with Durban with nothing in hand, but at least this does not seem to make for any binding commitments on anyone.

Kyoto will expire with nothing ‘real’ to replace it, I suspect.

The US and Canada will not sign on (let’s hope!), China and India will not make any concessions, and EU publics will start to figure out that nothing they do can really affect “the problem” even if all is as the greenies perceive it. The whole b.s. will continue to unravel gradually because the UN types cannot allow any explicit acknowledgement that CAGW is b.s. and has always been b.s.