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Durban (South Africa): Kyoto protocol extended by 5 years
Alf Wills, South Africa’s chief climate negotiator said many countries at the talks were wary of even moving toward taking on legal commitments.
”There was a risk that we could come out of Durban with no L-word in the document at all,” said Wills, who joined Molewa at a Pretoria news conference Monday. ”So, things have moved.”
Wills said South Africa and other African nations had wanted more, even a new Kyoto-style agreement.
”We were fully aware that to achieve that goal might not be possible in Durban,” he said, saying Africans instead focused on securing a fund to help poor countries cope with global warming and the transfer of clean energy and other technology from rich countries to poor.
African and other developing countries have been hardest hit by the floods and droughts associated with global warming, though they have historically contributed little in the way of greenhouse gas emissions.
Copyright 2011. The Associated Press
