CANCUN, Mexico — The slow-moving U.N. talks on combating global warming took a step forward Saturday with revised proposals for a $100 billion-a-year climate aid fund and other issues for debate by the world’s environment ministers this week.
Despite that advance, the chairwoman of key closed-door negotiations warned the open conference that obstacles remain to what delegates hope will be a package of decisions Friday on financial and other side matters under the U.N. climate treaty.
“Progress has been made in some areas,” said Zimbabwe’s Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe.
But she said the talks were “going backwards” on important issues. “We need to redouble our efforts.”
Environment ministers began flying in Saturday for the final days of the annual two-week climate conference, hoping to put new life in the U.N. talks.
Last week, under Mukahanana-Sangarwe’s leadership, a working group from among the 193 treaty nations sought to whittle down the contested texts of proposed decisions.
In one sign of the work facing them, only 170 words had been undisputed among the 1,300 on two pages of a key text on the “shared vision” of what the treaty nations want to accomplish. The disputed language was options proposed by various parties and placed within brackets.
The issue of reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by industry, vehicles and agriculture is the core dispute of the long-running climate talks and will not be fully resolved at Cancun.
