UN climate talks pave the way to global pact

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Warsaw, Nov 24 (IANS/EFE) The nearly 200 countries taking part in a climate change summit in Warsaw broke the deadlock in negotiations and outlined a roadmap toward a binding global pact on the reduction of emissions in 2015, one of the goals of this forum.

The text agreed upon by the delegations to the 19th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP19, no longer speaks of "commitments" to the reduction of hothouse gas emissions - that word has been substituted with the more malleable term "contributions".

That agreement did not live up to the original expectations of the European Union but was more acceptable to the majority of developing countries.

Up to now the only concrete measure to emerge from the COP19 after two weeks of negotiations has been an accord that includes new mechanisms for protecting tropical forests, given their capacity for absorbing carbon dioxide.

The delegations also agreed to clear the way toward agreeing on another of the three big topics at this summit: the long-term financing of measures against climate change, with a call to industrialised nations to have ready for the purpose $100 billion in public and private funds by the year 2020.

Still being debated are the details of a mechanism that would help compensate for the losses and repair damages suffered by the nations most vulnerable to disastrous climatic phenomena, the third of the principal points discussed at COP19.

--IANS/EFE

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