UN talks take first steps on 2015 Climate Deal

(Bonn) – UN members have taken their first steps in a marathon to negotiate a new global pact by 2015 that for the first time will place rich and poor under a common legal regime to tackle climate change. Meeting in Bonn, the 195 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began wrangling over how to work towards the target enshrined at their landmark conference in Durban, South Africa, last December.
Maite Nkoana-Mashabane of South Africa, who presided over the maiden session asked member countries to set aside “old and unhelpful negotiating practices”, urging that, “Time is limited and we need to take very seriously the desperate calls of some of our brethren, especially the small island states”, while referring to low-lying nations threatened by rising seas.
If all goes well, a new accord will be wrapped up in 2015 that will take effect in 2020. At present, legal constraints under the UN’s climate banner are divided among developed and developing countries as rich countries bear most of the historical responsibility for global warming today, but they say it is unfair to shoulder the burden for fixing the problem in the future.