CANCUN, Mexico — A U.N. conference on Saturday adopted a modest climate deal creating a fund to help the developing world go green, though it deferred for another year the tough work of carving out deeper reductions in carbon emissions causing Earth to steadily warm.
Though the accords were limited, it was the first time in three years the 193-nation conference adopted any climate action, restoring faith in the unwieldy U.N. process after the letdown a year ago at a much-anticipated summit in Copenhagen.
The Cancun Agreements created institutions for delivering technology and funding to poorer countries, though they did not say where the funding would come from.
In urging industrial countries to move faster on emissions cuts, it noted that scientists recommended reducing greenhouse gas emissions from industrial countries by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels within the next 10 years. Current pledges amount to about 16 percent.
One of the agreements renewed a framework for cutting greenhouse gas emissions but set no new targets for industrial countries. The second created a financial and technical support system for developing countries facing grave threats from global warming.
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The accord establishes a multibillion-dollar annual Green Climate Fund to help developing countries cope with climate change, though it does not say how the fund's money is to be raised. Last year in Copenhagen, governments agreed to mobilize $100 billion a year for developing countries, starting in 2020, much of which will be handled by the fund.
The agreements also set rules for internationally funded forest conservation, and provides for climate-friendly technology to expanding economies.
Expectations for the latest round of UN climate talks had been low in the run up to the conference, but negotiators have managed to keep the show on the road towards an ultimate deal on global warming.
Well before the conference, ministers had admitted that there would be no new final deal on tackling climate change this time round.
Instead, the focus was expected to be on the practical actions that countries could agree on, such as funding to help poor nations cope with climate change and a scheme to provide finance for tackling deforestation.
And a key part of the talks were about rebuilding trust between rich and poor countries from the rubble of Copenhagen, when a push to secure a new, binding global deal ended in chaos and recrimination.
In the 1992 U.N. climate treaty, the world's nations promised to do their best to rein in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases emitted by industry, transportation and agriculture. In the two decades since, the annual conferences' only big advance came in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, when parties agreed on modest mandatory reductions by richer nations.
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