The world is on track for a comprehensive global treaty on climate change for the first time after agreement was reached at talks in Durban, South Africa in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Greenpeace’s Kumi Naidoo with activists who occupied the convention centre. Photograph: Shayne Robinson/Greenpeace
Negotiators agreed to start work on a new climate deal that would have legal force and, crucially, require both developed and developing countries to cut their carbon emissions. The terms now need to be agreed by 2015 and come into effect from 2020.
“I salute the countries who made this agreement. They have all laid aside some cherished objectives of their own to meet a common purpose – a long-term solution to climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, the United Nations climate chief.
For more on this story, visit: Global climate change treaty in sight after Durban breakthrough | Environment | The Guardian.