A European plan to preserve Kyoto protocol and set up a new global treaty is being held up by India and some developing countries who feared that negotiating a new deal will take too long and be a recipe for inaction. The “Durban roadmap” came out on Sunday night during the climate talks: It’s a compromise proposal that want to preserve the Kyoto protocol with a legally binding parallel treaty which would compel all nations to cut emissions, but at different speeds and timescales.
Vic Buxton, who was one of the key figures representing Canada in the 1987 Montreal protocol negotiantions, said that Canada is blocking climate talks, impeding progess and protecting the interests of industry.
During the UN climate talks in Durban, new studies are showing the challenges we face in tackling climate change. A Swiss research group has just published its results on Nature Geoscience showing that at least 74% of the observed warming since 1950 has been caused by man – made factors.

Photo by UNclimatechange