'Bad news' on warming should spur UN talks: climate chief - The UN's climate chief urged negotiators gathering on Monday for new talks to heed a double dose of "bad news" that global warming could bust a threshold that is widely considered safe.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), urged nations at the 12-day talks in Bonn to carry out their pledge to peg warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Now, more than ever, it is critical that all efforts are mobilised towards living up to this commitment," she said in a webcast press conference.
Figueres pointed to "bad news" in the form of reports on carbon emissions released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Paris-based IEA said last month that carbon from energy use reached a record high in 2010 while the NOAA said that world atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in May had scaled a new peak.
Greenpeace activists burn a symbol of carbon dioxide as they demonstrate in 2008 in Berlin. The UN's climate chief urged negotiators gathering on Monday for new talks to heed a double dose of "bad news" that global warming could bust a threshold that is widely considered safe
The 12-day session in Bonn is meant to lay the groundwork for the next round of high-level negotiations in December in Durban, South Africa.
Some wealthy nations led by the United States favour restricting the scope of the Durban round to consolidating progress made in Cancun, Mexico, last December.
These include the creation of a "green fund" for developing countries that could reach 100 billion dollars a year, a system for monitoring national schemes to reduce emissions, and programmes to boost clean technologies and the ability of poor nations to absorb climate change impacts.
"If we take these steps and start to build the new institutions needed for a pragmatic international regime, COP 17 in Durban will be a solid success," said Jonathan Pershing, the top US negotiator in Bonn.
Developing nations, led by China and other major emerging economies, have embraced these goals, but major disagreements remain on how they should take shape.
Another big area of discord is over the future of the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol, the sole treaty that sets down legally binding emissions curbs. ( AFP )
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), urged nations at the 12-day talks in Bonn to carry out their pledge to peg warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
"Now, more than ever, it is critical that all efforts are mobilised towards living up to this commitment," she said in a webcast press conference.
Figueres pointed to "bad news" in the form of reports on carbon emissions released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Paris-based IEA said last month that carbon from energy use reached a record high in 2010 while the NOAA said that world atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in May had scaled a new peak.
Greenpeace activists burn a symbol of carbon dioxide as they demonstrate in 2008 in Berlin. The UN's climate chief urged negotiators gathering on Monday for new talks to heed a double dose of "bad news" that global warming could bust a threshold that is widely considered safe
The 12-day session in Bonn is meant to lay the groundwork for the next round of high-level negotiations in December in Durban, South Africa.
Some wealthy nations led by the United States favour restricting the scope of the Durban round to consolidating progress made in Cancun, Mexico, last December.
These include the creation of a "green fund" for developing countries that could reach 100 billion dollars a year, a system for monitoring national schemes to reduce emissions, and programmes to boost clean technologies and the ability of poor nations to absorb climate change impacts.
"If we take these steps and start to build the new institutions needed for a pragmatic international regime, COP 17 in Durban will be a solid success," said Jonathan Pershing, the top US negotiator in Bonn.
Developing nations, led by China and other major emerging economies, have embraced these goals, but major disagreements remain on how they should take shape.
Another big area of discord is over the future of the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol, the sole treaty that sets down legally binding emissions curbs. ( AFP )
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