UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) speaks to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer as Polish President Lech Kaczynski (R) gestures during the UN climate change conference in Poznan December 11, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    POZNAN, Poland, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations softened its tone on the outcome of the marathon Poznan climate talks on Thursday with the UN chief and his top climate official saying that the meeting won't come to final decisions on any major issues on fighting climate change.

    "Perhaps the meeting is not to come to final decisions," Ban Ki-moon told Xinhua at a press conference here, hinting that differences still linger between parties on major issues like a long-and mid-term goal of emission cut by the industrialized nations.

    Some industrialized countries like Japan, Canada and Australia are backsliding from strengthening the mid-term goal of cutting 25-40 percent emissions over the 1990 levels by 2020 by the industrialized countries, while several developing nations said the mid-term goal for emission cut is crucial to any long-term goal, which is not feasible under the current circumstances.

    At the beginning of the press conference, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said the Poznan conference on climate change is doing its "blue-collar job." "This is a blue-collar conference, it's a conference to get our job done, it's not a conference of spectacular or breakthroughs," de Boer told reporters in a short brief of the meeting before the reporters raised questions.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski speaks during the UN climate change conference in Poznan December 11, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    Elaborating on possible outcomes of the talks, de Boer said the conference is to agree on a negotiating agenda for the coming year and the intensification of negotiations, and will provide the chairs of the two working groups with the mandate to come with the negotiating text in advance. "With these, the blue-collar conference is delivered on its goals," de Boer said.

    The two working groups, one on long-term cooperative action and the other under the Kyoto Protocol, are the two major platforms under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to negotiate ways on fighting climate change.

    According to the UN climate chief, the Poznan talks have also made progresses on some areas like reducing emissions from deforestation and are moving towards more practical actions on adaptation and making the adaptation fund more operational. The conference, which started on Dec. 1, culminated on Thursday in a high-level meeting of some 145 ministers and senior representatives and four heads of state focusing on a shared vision on fighting climate change.

EU leaders urged to reach climate change deal

    BRUSSELS, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- President of the European Parliament (EP) Hans-Gert Pottering on Thursday urged leaders of the European Union (EU) to reach a comprehensive deal on an energy and climate change package, saying that a failure to hammer out an agreement would undermine the EU's leadership in the area in the world.

    "If we fail to achieve an acceptable result now, it may no longer be possible to adopt the energy and climate package on schedule. This is not what either the (European) Council or the European Parliament wants, and any such failure would also undermine the European Union's leadership in this area at world level," Pottering told EU leaders, who began their two-day meeting Thursday afternoon.  Full story