The United Nations Climate Change Conference 2011 has begun in Durban, South Africa. The conference is to last from 28 November to 9 December, and will bring together representatives of the world’s governments, international organizations and civil society.
The conference will see the attempt to finalize the agreements reached at the 2010 Global Change Conference held in Cancun, among them clean technology and the promised transfer of funds from rich countries to poor to assist them in the protection of the environment and adaptation to climate impacts.
The focus in Durban, however, will primarily be on securing of a global climate agreement, as the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol is to end in 2012.
The European Union has previously expressed its intention of ratifying the new global agreement only under very clear conditions, namely if the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas ratify the new Kyoto as well. However, the European Parliament has now called for the EU to champion the Kyoto protocol, stating that in Durban the EU should give public and unequivocal support to the continuation of the Protocol.
