London:
Pre-Climate Talks Begin
Representatives
of the world's biggest carbon polluters are holding two days of
informal talks in London to map out common grounds, preparatory
to a key UN climate conference in Copenhagen.
The 17 countries that make up a bloc, along with developing
nations and UN representatives, will try to iron out some of
their differences, ahead of the critical summit in December.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband says they
represent about 90 per cent of global emissions, so if they can
get a way forward and narrow some of the differences between the
seventeen countries that represent the lion's share of the
problem, then it might make the UN talks easier.
Miliband said the December talks in Denmark, when nations will
try to agree a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto
Protocol which expires in 2012, were unlikely to succeed if left
to the summit itself.
The forum intends to hand its consensus over for approval by the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the sprawling one
hundred and ninety two-nation global arena.
AP/Qasim/Yinka
