Mexico wants binding climate accord at 2010 summit

I / Mexico City December 25, 2009, 14:39 IST

Mexico will push for a binding international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions when it hosts the next climate change summit in Mexico City in the coming year.

Mexico seeks to accomplish what the recent Copenhagen conference failed to do - get developed and poorer nations to agree to a 50 per cent emissions cut by 2050, as compared to 2000 levels, according to a statement issued by the Environment Department yesterday.

A historic UN climate conference ended earlier this month with only a nonbinding accord - after two weeks of debate and frustration - that was short on concrete steps against global warming.

The agreement brokered by US President Barack Obama with China and others set up the first significant program of climate aid to poorer nations. Although it urged deeper cuts in emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, it did not require them.

Critics are now calling the accord window dressing to cover deep divisions between China and the US and poor and developed countries and say that the conference was a failure.

Mexico's statement yesterday did not say how it would resolve the fractious debate and acknowledged it is "a big challenge for the country." A formal date for the 2010 conference has yet to be set.