Countries agree to develop new international climate change treaty

Delegates at international climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, agreed Sunday to negotiate a new treaty aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement, which comes after two weeks of heated negotiations, extends the existing Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997, while countries negotiate a new climate change framework. The agreement requires countries to develop a new treaty by 2015 that would go into effect by 2020.

Delegates also agreed to establish a framework for a fund to help developing countries deal with the effects of climate change, though they did not identify where the money for the fund would come from.

{mosads}The agreement drew mixed reactions from advocacy groups Sunday.

Oxfam blasted the deal, arguing negotiators agreed to “the bare minimum deal possible.”

“The Durban Platform can only be described as a major disappointment,” Celine Charveriat, Director of Campaigns and Advocacy for Oxfam, said in a statement.  “But the blame for this delay lies squarely on the shoulders of the US and other countries like Canada, Japan and Australia who dragged their feet from start to finish.”

The Union of Concerned Scientists applauded delegates for avoiding the collapse of climate talks, but said the deal will not prevent the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change.

“While governments avoided disaster in Durban, they by no means responded adequately to the mounting threat of climate change,” Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.

“The decisions adopted here fall well short of what is needed. It’s high time governments stopped catering to the needs of corporate polluters, and started acting to protect people.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council called the deal “important progress,” and pressed countries to “follow through on the commitments they made in Durban.”

“They must act at home, while also continuously working toward even more detailed international agreements in the near future,” the group said in a statement.

Climate advocates were pleased that the Durban deal paves the way for big developing nations including China, now the world’s largest emitter, to face binding commitments.

Developing countries do not face emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

“This outcome brings large countries like China and India into the room to negotiate meaningful commitments to address the urgent need to cut global emissions,” NRDC said.

Negotiators at the United Nations talks were faced with a series of long-standing disagreements between developing and developed countries over how to divide the responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A slew of countries signed on to the Kyoto Protocol, but the United States never ratified the protocol.

The agreement came as efforts to pass climate change legislation in the United States are dead after the Senate failed to move cap-and-trade legislation last year. Republicans and some moderate Democrats in Congress have raised questions about climate science and sought to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from passing regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries.

The vast majority of the world’s scientists say the climate is changing in large part due to human activity.

This post was updated at 1:39 p.m.