CANCUN climate talks agree on plan to help LDCs cope with global warming

The COP16 climate conference ended in Cancun, Mexico Saturday with an agreement to reaffirm support for the world's least developed countries to help them cope with global warming.

The Green Climate Fund would manage a "significant share" of the $100 billion a year pledged last year at the Copenhagen climate talks.

Trinidad and Tobago was among the 193 that sent delegations to the UN conference, which also agreed on a plan to halt deforestation and pledged to share low-carbon technologies.

However, it deferred for another year the tough work of carving out deeper reductions in carbon emissions.

The 12-day gathering was held a year after the Copenhagen climate talks ended without any binding agreement on curbing greenhouse gases.

The Cancun agreement does not specify what will happen once the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 — postponing the debate until the next scheduled climate talks in South Africa in 2011.

The European Union's top climate official, Connie Hedegaard, said Saturday's decisions would help keep international climate talks on track.

"But the two weeks in Cancun have shown once again how slow and difficult the process is," Hedegaard said. "Everyone needs to be aware that we still have a long and challenging journey ahead of us to reach the goal of a legally binding global climate framework."

Environmentalists cautiously welcomed the deal. It "wasn't enough to save the climate," said Alden Meyer of the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists. "But it did restore the credibility of the United Nations as a forum where progress can be made."

-CBC, with files from AP