Bonn climate talks end with limited progress
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The third round of UN climate talks in 2010 closed in Bonn, Germany Friday with limited progress, as delegates discussed a draft text for an operational basis and advanced slowly on emission cuts pledges and other issues.
During the Bonn session, which was held from Aug. 2 to 6, " governments have made progress towards deciding the shape of a successful result in Cancun," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"Everyone understands that it is hard to cook a meal without a pot. Governments are much closer now to actually making the pot," the UN top climate official said in a press conference.
"Many governments said that they believe a set of COP ( Conference of the Parties) decisions, which quickly operationalize key elements of the Bali Action Plan, would be an achievable outcome in Cancun," she said.
"However, governments also have to decide what exactly to cook in the pot. To achieve desired outcomes in Cancun, governments must radically narrow down the choices on the table," she said.
The executive secretary urged all governments to agree "further compromises" and to deliver "clear and unmistakable progress" in the Cancun summit, which will be held in the Mexico' s holiday resort from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.
Both the two ad hoc working groups, one on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the other on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-LCA), has presented in Bonn a draft text to facilitate further negotiation.
Delegates said they were discussing these texts line by line in the past five days, and tens of pages has been added up to the texts as various proposals were put forward by different countries or blocs.
"Although the negotiating text is not perfect, it does offer a widely-accepted basis for concrete discussions, and we view this as an important step forward in the process of climate talks since Copenhagen 2009," Su Wei, China's chief negotiator, told Xinhua after the meeting.
However, other key issues on addressing climate change, such as reduction promises and climate finances, seemed being dragged as developed and developing countries could hardly commit to each other.
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