Deals but No New Treaty Seen in Cancun Climate Summit

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, delivers remarks during the opening plenary session of the Bonn, Germany, climate talks on Aug. 3, 2010. Figueres says governments meeting in Cancun, Mexico, eye a set of interlocking deals but not a new treaty. Photo by: UNFCCC / CC BY-NC-ND UNFCCCCC BY-NC-ND

Governments taking part in the United Nations climate talks in Mexico later this month will seek a set of interlocking deals, but a new treaty is unlikely, according to the agency’s climate chief.

A global accord on reducing greenhouse gas emissions “is a complex process and it’s going to be a slow process,” U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres was quoted by Reuters as saying.

In Cancun, governments will try to hammer out climate measures including a new “green fund” to support climate change adaptation in poor nations, methods to protect tropical forests and a new mechanism for promoting clean technologies.

“I don’t hear any party saying that there would be a possibility to only to pick out some of the components and move those forward,” Figueres said. “What I hear from the parties is the need for a balanced package.”

Cancun climate talks, slated for Nov. 29 to Dec. 10, should focus on the creation of a green fund, Mexico’s foreign minister Patricia Espinosa told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting.

“We believe a significant outcome in Cancun should focus on providing the means for immediate global action,” Espinosa said, as quoted by Reuters. “There is broad convergence on the creation of a framework that supports actions on adaptation, on the facilitation of the transfer of technology, on support for the conservation of forests, and on the creation of a Green Fund.”