Green groups on Sunday called for more decisive action on global warming on the eve of week-long UN climate change talks to be held in China. The meeting, starting on Monday in the north-eastern port city Tianjin, should agree on key parts the negotiation texts so that a global agreement can be reached at the UN Climate Summit in Cancun, Mexico, Greenpeace said.
“Governments must re-affirm the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol,” the environmental organisation said. “It’s vital that progress is made in Tianjin,” Friends of the Earth said, calling for new public money for developing countries and for developed countries to agree on tough new emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.
China said demands on developing countries could undermine talks. “Unreasonable requirements that press big developing countries, such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa, to reduce emissions also will undermine the smooth proceeding of the talks,” state-run Xinhua news agency said in an editorial on Sunday.
Earlier, UN climate chief Christine Figueres called on governments to compromise on concrete steps towards a global agreement. “Governments will need to cut down the number of options they have on the table, identify what is achievable in Cancun and muster political compromises that will deliver what needs to be done at Cancun,” Figueres said late last month.
The China talks are the fourth and final meeting before the Mexico summit in December.
