UN climate meet okays roadmap to legally pressurise carbon polluters

UN climate talks Sunday okayed a roadmap for a 2015 accord that will, for the first time, legally force all major carbon polluters to cut greenhouse gas emissions, a landmark move that followed days of wrangling between India and the EU over the language of the new deal.

The pact on tackling climate change -- the agreement on which came after hard negotiations that ran 36 hours beyond schedule -- must be completed by 2015 and will go into effect from 2020.

Talks on the new legal deal covering all countries will begin next year, when Kyoto Protocol expires.

The 194-party conference here agreed to the second commitment period under Kyoto Protocol, the only legally-binding treaty for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 industrialised nations and the EU to slash carbon emissions to 5 per cent below the 1990 levels by 2012.

Up to now, China and India have been exempt from any constraints because they are developing countries, while the US has opted out of the Kyoto Protocol.

During the conference here, which was originally scheduled to close on Friday, the EU had pushed hard for a "roadmap" to a new, legally binding treaty against fierce resistance from India and China, whose delegates argued that mandatory cuts would slow their growth and condemn millions to poverty.

"Am I to write a blank check and sign away the livelihoods and sustainability of 1.2 billion Indians, without even knowing what the EU 'roadmap' contains?" asked Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan. "Please do not hold us hostage."