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12 Dec 2011: Durban Yields Little
As Climate Deal is Again Delayed

Delegates at UN-sponsored climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed to extend the Kyoto climate accords for another five years and promised to forge some sort of legally binding treaty — due to take effect in 2020 — to slow global warming. But for the second time in as many years, representatives from the world’s major economies were unable to agree on concrete commitments to reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions, which last year grew at a record pace of nearly 6 percent. “We avoided a train wreck and we got some useful incremental decisions,” said Alden Meyer of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve, which is accelerating, and the impacts of climate change, which are climbing day by day.” In addition to extending the 1997 Kyoto Protocols, due to expire at the end of 2012, delegates from nearly 200 countries agreed in principal to establish a fund to help poor countries deal with global warming. Expectations for the Durban conference had been low, unlike the Copenhagen climate conference two years ago, which also ended with little concrete action despite the presence of world leaders, including President Obama.

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