Background

From Copenhagen to Cancun

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-28 19:20

MEXICO CITY - The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-16) will be held in Cancun, a resort city on Mexico's Caribbean coast, from Nov 29 to Dec 10 to continue to search solutions to the climate problem.

The Cancun is another important conference for the international community to advance the "Bali Road Map" negotiations after the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last year, which failed to reach a legally binding treaty for the years beyond 2012.

Four UN climate talks have been held since Copenhagen conference, three in German city Bonn and one in China's Tianjin, with some progress having been made in climate payments and forestry protection.

The first round of United Nations climate change talks in Bonn lasted from April 9 to 12, with negotiators agreeing to hold two more sessions in 2010. The talks dragged on due to differences between developing and developed countries on how to deal with the outcomes of the Copenhagen conference.

The second round of talks was held from May 31 to June 11 with "imbalance" becoming the key word. The split could not cove some progress made during the past 12 days. The progress was made in fleshing out the specifics of how a climate regime can work in practice, including climate funds, transfer of clean technologies, slowing deforestation and capacity building.

The third round of UN climate talks held from Aug 2 to 6. The talks also got limited progress, as delegates discussed a draft text for an operational basis and advanced slowly on emission cuts pledges and other issues.

The fourth round of talks was held in China's Tianjin, as the parties have made some progress in climate payment and forestry protection, for example, each side "is very close" to agree with each other to build a climate fund.

According to experts, optimism remains for substantial progress in dual-track negotiations on the "Bali Map Road," though an international community agrees it may be difficult to achieve a legally binding agreement.

The conference will gather the participants from governments, businesses, non governmental organizations and research institutions from 180 countries. It is the penultimate opportunity for parties to reach a legally-binding treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol which will expire in 2012.