US, China, India Hold up Durban Climate Talks on Final Day

Repost from the Environmental Leader: The U.S., China and India are blocking a plan to create a legally binding global climate treaty as the final day of COP 17 negotiations winds down in Durban, news outlets report. European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said China and India are holding back their support for the EU-designed “road map” plotting the successor to the Kyoto agreement, the Financial Post reports. And last night the U.S. said it wouldn’t agree to talks for a legally binding deal.

Just hours earlier, on Thursday evening, negotiators appeared to have pulled negotiations from the brink of collapse. U.S. climate change envoy Todd Stern said Washington supported an EU roadmap to a new treaty, Reuters reported yesterday. African nations, 43 island states and 48 of the world’s least developed countries have said that they back the EU plan for binding targets by 2015, and Canadian environment minister Peter Kent said Ottawa and small island states were working together. He said negotiators should not leave Durban without a firm agreement. Follow this link for more details.