Durban: at last, US, India and China agree to act on climate

THE UNITED NATIONS climate change talks in Durban have been declared a success after an agreement was reached to begin negotiations on a treaty with legal force that will require both developed and developing countries to reduce carbon emissions.

The agreement - dubbed the 'Durban Platform' - states that a new treaty should be thrashed out over the next four years.

What has been agreed?

• Developing countries such as India and China - the world's biggest polluter - have agreed to be legally bound to reduce their carbon emissions. The United States, which in the past has objected to legally enforceable cuts, is also on board. These 'Big Three' make up almost half of global emissions.
• The European Union has agreed to a new version of the Kyoto protocol from 2013, which commits it to legally binding emissions cuts. This lays to rest fears that there would be a decade of inaction until the new treaty comes into play in 2020, although Kyoto does not include the US.
• The Green Climate Fund has been agreed. This is a means to channel $100bn per year to poor countries to help them adapt to the consequences of climate change and buy green technology.

What is the biggest achievement??

The fact that the US has agreed to legally binding cuts is significant. It signed but never ratified the Kyoto Protocol and its involvement is crucial to the success of any new treaty. India and China have also objected to cutting their emissions in the past, saying that developed countries are responsible for most of the climate change that has occurred so far and must do more.

What now?

Negotiations on a new, legally binding treaty will begin almost immediately. It will be signed no later than 2015 and come into effect by 2020.

Has the earth been saved from climate change?

Critics of yesterday's agreement believe we are still on course for a catastrophic 4C increase in global temperatures.

Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK, told The Guardian that governments have "salvaged a path forward" but "we must be under no illusion - the outcome of Durban leaves us with the prospect of being legally bound to a world of 4C warming".

Others see a glimmer of hope that the increase in temperatures could yet be limited to 2C. Michael Jacobs, a visiting professor at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London, told the BBC: "The agreement here has not in itself taken us off the 4C path we are on. But by forcing countries for the first time to admit that their current policies are inadequate and must be strengthened by 2015, it has snatched 2C from the jaws of impossibility.

"At the same time it has re-established the principle that climate change should be tackled through international law, not national voluntarism." ·