Special Report: Fight against Global Warming

    By Gao Li, Zhang Xiaojun     

    BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Worldwide efforts on tackling the worsening global warming issue will go into top gear here on Monday, with the opening of the 13th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

    Over 180 countries, represented by some 10,000 delegates, will take part in the conference on Dec. 3-14 in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia.

    The main purpose of the meeting is to begin negotiations for a new climate change regime to replace the 1997 Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.

    The meeting comes on the heels of a series of international meetings which highlighted the global climate change problem, and a scientific report of the Nobel-Winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warned that the impact of global warming could be "abrupt or irreversible".

    Therefore, the whole world pins high hopes on the Bali meeting and expects breakthrough can be made at the meeting so as to get negotiations going on a new international climate change agreement.

    Under the UNFCCC's principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", the developed nations should provide fund and technical support for the developing world in a bid to fight global warming.

    At the 15th Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Sydney, Australia, Chinese President Hu Jintao also said that in tackling climate change, helping others is helping oneself, and only cooperation can bring about win-win progress. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UNFCCC has warned that the world would be "in deep trouble" if the Bali meeting fails to make breakthrough.

    The international community was fighting against time in a bid to stem global warming, he said.