Almost 200 nati-ons agreed on Saturday to modest steps to combat climate change, including a new fund to help poor countries, and put off major disputes until 2011 and beyond. “This is a new era of international cooperation on climate change,” Mexican foreign minister Patricia Espinosa told delegates at the end of two weeks of talks after breaking the deadlock between rich and poor countries.
The deal, reached at marathon overnight talks, comprises a plan to design a Green Climate Fund, measures to protect tropical forests and ways to share clean energy technologies and help developing nations adapt to climate change.
It also reaffirms a goal of raising an annual $100 billion in aid for poor countries by 2020 and sets a target of limiting a rise in average world temperatures to below 2º Celsius over pre-industrial times.
“The most important thing is that the multilateral process has received a shot in the arm, it had reached an historic low. It will fight another day,” said environment minister Jairam Ramesh. “It could yet fail.”
The talks had lowered expectations after US President Barack Obama and other world leaders failed to agree on a treaty at a summit in Copenhagen last year.