UN members on Thursday took their first steps in a marathon to negotiate a new global pact by 2015 that for the first time will place rich and poor under a common legal regime to tackle climate change.
Meeting in Bonn, the 195 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began wrangling over how to work towards the target enshrined at their landmark conference in Durban, South Africa, last December.
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane of South Africa, who presided over the maiden session, urged countries as they embarked on the long road to set aside “old and unhelpful negotiating practices,” a reference to the bickering that typically dogs climate talks.
“Time is limited and we need to take very seriously the desperate calls of some of our brethren, especially the small island states,” she said, referring to low-lying nations threatened by rising seas.
Great news.