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Climate talks produce 'concrete' results: UNFCCC

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-09 16:58

TIANJIN - The fourth round of UN climate talks this year, which was concluded in Tianjin on Saturday, has produced some "concrete" results, said UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.

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Negotiators have produced a draft decision text that will be submitted to the Cancun Conference, scheduled for Nov 29 to Dec 10 this year in Mexico, which is a very concrete result, said Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at a press conference.

They have addressed "what is doable in Cancun and what will be left after Cancun," she said.

Negotiators also talked about key operational elements of finance, technology and capacity building as well as the future of the Kyoto Protocol, she added.

The meeting, held in north China's Tianjin Municipality from Oct 4 to 9, is the final one before the Cancun Conference and the first time that such a formal meeting of its kind has been convened in China.

In the past week, negotiators have not yet come to an agreement on how to allocate the 30-billion-U.S. dollar "fast start fund", which will be used to support developing countries, but a final result will be seen in Cancun, Figueres said.

Negotiators have come much closer to working out a new fund of long-term finance to cope with climate changes and they will discuss the details in Cancun, she said.

Less progress had been made in discussions of the continuation of Kyoto Protocol in Tianjin, she said, but expressed confidence that the issue would make progress at Cancun.

"Generally speaking, the outcome of the Tianjin meeting has met with our original expectation," said Su Wei, China's chief climate change negotiator, in an interview with Xinhua on Saturday.

The talks in the past five days have made progress to close the difference and improve common understanding among parties, he said.

"Everybody has been working hard to work out the balanced outcome at the meeting."

Through the talks, several problems had been identified and understandings improved, which will lay the foundations for the next step of negotiations, he said.