Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Global deal needs 'strong' 2020 targets: UN climate chief


The global climate treaty slated for completion by year's end will be crippled without "strong commitments" from rich nations on slashing CO2 emissions by 2020, the UN's top climate official said Thursday.

The absence of such commitments "would defeat the whole purpose of the Copenhagen agreement," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) told AFP in an phone interview.

Disagreement over how deep those cuts should be remain one of the most serious sticking points in the troubled talks, and has opened a deep rift between developed and developing nations.

See full Press Release.