Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The United Nations is apparently lowering its expectations about reaching a climate change agreement during an international conference in December.

The director of the secretary-general's Climate Change Support Team cites the lack of U.S. climate legislation, lack of carbon reduction targets from industrialized nations, and lack of funding for developing nations.

Janos Pasztor says that makes it hard to say "how far the conference will be able to go."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made a new climate treaty his top priority to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol, which only requires 37 industrialized nations to cut emissions.

Pasztor indicates that the Copenhagen conference most likely won't produce a treaty, but instead will push governments as far as they can go on the content of an agreement.