CANCUN, Mexico, December 11, 2011 – Grenada has hailed the deal reached at the United Nations Climate Change Conference which concluded in Cancun early Saturday morning.

Delegates adopted a balanced package of decisions that set all governments more firmly on the path towards a low-emissions future and support enhanced action on climate change in the developing world.

Grenada, which chairs the 43-member grouping of Small Island Developing States (AOSIS), welcomed the agreements which will provide the platforms to protect the poor and most vulnerable from climate change as well as the access to finance and technology transfer to developing countries.

“The Cancun outcomes will provide us with a roadmap and the basis for future negotiations,” said Grenada’s Environment Minister Karl Hood who engaged in detailed negotiations during the two-week conference. “The package agreed to demonstrates that a compromise is possible,” he said.

Minister Hood, on behalf of AOSIS, co-chair with Sweden on consultation on the long term shared vision, which covers the lowering of global temperature and the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere and the peaking of global emissions.

Prime Minister Tillman Thomas had earlier called for a global mechanism to govern the planet against the effects of climate change.

“It’s not the responsibility of any individual or organisation to preserve the planet but rather a collective approach because it’s a planetary emergency,” he said.

Some elements of the “Cancun Agreements” include the provision of US$30 billion in fast start finance from developed countries to support climate action in the developing world up to 2012 and the intention to raise US$100 billion in long-term funds by 2020.

They also agreed to establish a Green Climate Fund under the Conference of the Parties (COP), with a board of directors with equal representation from developed and developing countries. This separate funding mechanism will help countries adapt to the impacts of global warming, curb deforestation and boost technology cooperation.

The conference agreed that countries need to work to stay below a two degree temperature rise and consider whether to make the pledge 1.5 degrees. According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) current emissions reduction pledges could lead temperatures to rise up to 5 degrees by 2100.

A new Cancun Adaptation Framework was also established to allow planning and implementation of adaptation projects in developing countries through increased financial and technical support, including a clear process for continuing work on loss and damage.

Over the past two weeks, there has been concern that the talks might fail since Japan and Russia have said that they will not commit to the second period of the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only treaty on climate change that puts legally binding cuts on developed countries.

In the last few days, negotiators have struggled to formulate text that accommodates the desire of the majority of developing countries to continue with the Kyoto Protocol, and also not to force Japan and Russia into a second commitment period.

The first commitment period, which expires at the end of 2012, requires industrialised countries to reduce their greenhouse gases by five per cent from 1990 levels.

Saturday’s deal was approved over the fierce objections of Bolivia, which said the compromise was too weak to confront global warming. Bolivia said the agreement’s approval marked a violation of UN rules which required all 194 members of the summit to back a deal.

However, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Patricia Espinosa, who chaired the summit, took note of Bolivia’s concerns but ignored its pleas and approved the deal.

Bolivia was among a group of countries including Cuba and Tuvalu which successfully blocked the Copenhagen Accord from being adopted as a formal UN text. The CA was brokered by more than two dozen world leaders including United States President Barack Obama.

The next Conference of the Parties (COP17) is scheduled for Durban, South Africa, from November 28 to December 9, 2011.

PHOTO CAPTION: Prime Minister Thomas with Foreign Minister Hood (L) and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (R)

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Bascombe