"Governments Confirm Climate Accord Pledges, No New Commitment"

"BONN -- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has received national pledges to cut and limit greenhouse gases by 2020 from 55 countries, including China and the United States that together account for 78 percent of global emissions from energy use.

The national pledges were required under the Copenhagen Accord agreed at the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. The pledges were made for the period after the end of 2012 when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets expires.

'The commitment to confront climate change at the highest level is beyond doubt,' said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer. 'These pledges have been formally communicated to the UNFCCC. Greater ambition is required to meet the scale of the challenge. But I see these pledges as clear signals of willingness to move negotiations towards a successful conclusion.'

'This represents an important invigoration of the UN climate change talks under the two tracks of Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, said de Boer, the UN's top climate negotiator."

Environmental News Service had the story February 8, 2010.

See Also:

"Legally Binding? It's So 2009" (ClimateWire)