Final negotiations in Durban to reach an agreement on climate

AFP - The final negotiations were engaged Thursday in the climate conference in Durban in operationalizing the Green Fund, expected by the South, and try to reach an agreement, still very uncertain, the idea of ​​a "sheet road "to a binding treaty.

"We just are not many hours," warned the European Commissioner for Climate Connie Hedegaard, while the twelve days of talks ends Friday night in South Africa.

Nearly 200 countries met in Durban from November 28th to the 17th UN conference on climate. The international community has set itself the objective of limiting the rise in global temperature to 2 ° C. To date, the situation is clear and dark: the bill promises to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from different countries can not achieve this goal.

The level of ambition in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is not up for discussion in South Africa that focus particularly on the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding instrument on the existing climate to date.

The EU is ready to go on a second commitment period (post-2012), but insists that it can only be a temporary solution and it will do so only if it is satisfied, from Durban, as Then the others join in a new global agreement legally binding.

A proposal to which the United States and China, the central actors in their negotiations with more than 40% of global emissions between them, have still not provided a clear answer.

The Chinese have so far blown hot and cold, being open but not very accurate.

The United States, reluctant, however, appeared to have a small step towards giving Europe Thursday, speaking through their representative Todd Stern, they "supported" the idea of ​​a "roadmap" for "prepare and negotiate a future regime" but to decide on whether this framework should be binding or not.

Green Fund soon be operational?

"We're not there yet, but we are making progress," said the British Minister of Energy Chris Huhne, saying that two-thirds of the 190 countries present supported the European proposal.

Discussions on the effective implementation of a Green Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change they seemed more advanced, despite some sticking points with the United States.

"By the end of the week, the Green Fund should be operational," said Wednesday the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

However, he added immediately, "it is useless to have a fund if it has no power", recalling the commitment made in Copenhagen was to reach 100 billion dollars a year from of 2020.

"Without progress on the financial issue, there will be no progress (...) on an international agreement to combat climate change," warned the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Thursday morning at the podium, in plenary, the French Minister for Ecology, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, citing the South African Nadine Gordimer, Nobel Prize for Literature: "The forms that appear to have lost all sense of strength have been repeated too often are those that contain the most truth. "

"We repeat at leisure as the urgency of climate change must cause us to act," she added.