LONDON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Major economies have further narrowed the differences on the solutions to climate change after they ended a two-day Major Economics Forum (MEF) here on Monday, though prospects for a new UN climate change pact still remained in the balance.
They substantially agreed that significantly scaled up financing would be important, according to a communique released after the closing of the MEF.
In order to contribute to success at the Copenhagen Climate Conference, to be held on December 7-18, officials from 17 major economies focused on finding convergence among their views on finance, technology, mitigation pathways, how to reflect mitigation commitments and actions, and means to improve transparency and accountability.
On finance, they also emphasized the need for substantial public finance in addition to the private sector and carbon market, said the communique. These flows could deliver significant benefits to developing countries in terms of both on the ground investment and environmental and energy security co-benefits.
This is a big step forward in the key areas to deal with climate change, said British energy and climate secretary Ed Miliband at the press conference after the close of the MEF of 17 countries accounting for about 80 percent of world greenhouse gas emission.
Todd Stern, Washington's climate envoy who co-hosted the MEF, said at the press conference that there was hope of a new pact to fight against global warming despite sluggish progress in the 190-nation talks to be held Copenhagen in December.
"More progress needs to be made but we think that something can be done," said Stern. Both he and Miliband said there was no "PlanB," for example to delay Copenhagen into 2010.
The 17 major economies also agreed that consideration should be given to a new fund and better use of existing mechanisms, possibly with multiple windows to support adaptation and mitigation, including technology and capacity building, according to the communique.
"We must make progress on finance," said the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the meeting of the MEF on Monday, "that requires developed countries to come forward with finance offers and developing countries to come forward with the plans and actions which such finance would support, practical commitments which both must keep and make."
On listing, major economies agreed to give further consideration to various options for listing intended actions, including the Australian schedules proposal and the Korean registry proposal.
On the transparency, the communique noted that review of developed country targets would look at implementation of quantitative outcomes and review of developing country actions would look at implementation of such actions. It also noted that the frequency, timeliness, and content of national communications could be improved.
Brown said that the world needs to cut its carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by a further 10 percent below the reductions that have already been promised to head off the threat of catastrophic global warning,
He warned that the costs of failing to tackle the climate change would be greater than the impact of both world wars and the Great Depression combined. He called that the global cooperation was needed to tackle the climate crisis, as it had been for the economic and financial crisis.
"Low carbon means high cooperation: cooperation over technology development and assistance; cooperation in providing finance for adaptation; cooperation in a global carbon market which fosters efficient emissions reduction and creates investment flows to developing countries," he said.
"I believe agreement at Copenhagen is possible, but we must frankly face the fact that our negotiations are not getting to agreement quickly enough," he added.
The MEF was established earlier this year to provide a more informal meeting to discuss key elements of the agreements that will be negotiated at Copenhagen. It is not part of the formal UN process, so it is impossible for the participants to work out firm commitments.
