Global climate negotiators gathered in the Mexican resort city Cancun hope their decisions can have a positive impact on the global environment.

The Cancun summit will be successful if parties compromise, if they make sure that in the process of getting what they want, they allow others to leave with what they need, said Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Governments can reach a deal to launch action on adaptation, technology transfer, and forests, and they can create a new fund for long-term climate finance, she said.

Figueres also said the Cancun summit will not solve everything and the outcome needs to be pragmatic, but the participants also need to keep ambition alive, she added.

Su Wei, Deputy Director of the Chinese delegation to the summit, said China has a positive attitude toward the climate negotiations.

"Cancun is an important station in the international negotiating, and we continue to stick to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Roadmap," he said.

Su said Beijing expects the conference to "bear real fruit" on the key issues of mitigation, adaptation, financial support and technology transfer and thus to lay a solid foundation for future negotiations and eventually a legally binding treaty.

The developed world should take the lead in cutting emissions due to their past responsibility for climate change, Sergio B. Serra, Brazilian Ambassador for Climate Change, told Beijing Review.

He also said Brazil appreciates the constructive role China has played in the negotiations and voluntary efforts of the country to cut emissions.

The main problem of the current negotiating process is the inability of the United States administration to make a meaningful commitment to cut its national emissions adequately. It’s now clear Congress will not adopt a comprehensive climate bill, according to a report by the non-governmental organization Third World Network.

The US reluctance makes other developed countries disinclined to firm up their commitments, or even retain the existing regulated system. Many of them are still dragging their feet in stating how much they would cut their emissions, individually and as a group, in the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period that is to start in 2013, the report said.

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