http://english.cntv.cn/2014/06/16/ARTI1402878060485862.shtml

 

The second round of United Nations climate talks this year closed in Bonn on Sunday with progress towards a new global climate deal scheduled to be passed in 2015.

 

Demands from developing countries for financial support and higher emission reduction targets, however, were yet to be met by their developed counterparts.

During the two-week talks which started on June 4, nearly 1900 participants from 182 parties exchanged their views on issues such as elements of the new climate deal which was scheduled to be passed in Paris at the end of 2015, parties' contributions to address climate change and their enhanced actions in the pre-2020 period.

Following talks of two years in the forms of informal consultation, workshops and round table meetings, negotiations over the new deal that will enter into force from 2020 started in this session with a more formal pattern of contact groups. Key elements of the deal were tabled.

"Consensus was being accumulated despite various divergences," said Gao Feng, a senior representative of the Chinese delegation to the talks.

He said developing countries were asking for a comprehensive and balanced reflection of mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer, capability building and transparency of supports in the new deal, as well as in the "contributions", while developed countries focused too much on mitigation, or emission cuts, in their viewpoints, ignoring their obligation of providing financial and technological supports to developing countries.

However, as the negotiations deepened, more and more countries agreed that all the key elements should be included. "It was becoming more and more constructive," Gao said, adding that he was "cautiously optimistic" about the prospect of reaching the deal in Paris on time.

During the talks over enhanced actions against climate change prior to 2020, developing countries said that current emission cuts targets in the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol set by developed countries were too low considering their capabilities and thus should be increased. Developed countries should also come up with a detailed roadmap for their promised financial supports, they said.

These demands, however, did not receive positive response. Some developed countries insisted on linking their own emission reduction targets to actions of other parties, even developing countries.

Developed countries also promised in 2009 to increase their financial aid to developing countries for tackling climate change to 100 billion U.S. dollars per year by 2020, but failed to make it clear how they would increase the money scale. The Green Climate Fund, which was established in South Korea and ready for capital mobilization, remained an empty shell.

In a ministerial meeting held during the talks, China's chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua said that developing country including China were highly concerned of the huge gap between the emission cuts target of developed countries and their historical responsibility. He urged those countries to raise their targets before the end of this year, and to keep their promises.

Another session of negotiations would be held in October in Bonn, following a climate summit in September called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York.