Climate negotiators reach "balanced" agreement in Cancun - Nature.com (blog)

Official word came early this morning that an agreement had been reached in Cancun (New York Times). The modest deal staved off the very real threat of outright collapse in the talks, which would have provoked a truly existential crisis for the process. It also accomplished pretty much exactly what most hoped it would accomplish going into the meeting, which is to formalize and build on last year's Copenhagen Accord.

The parties agreed to a package of measures that among other things establishes a global climate fund to help developing countries take action; creates a new system for transferring climate technologies around the globe; and advances a system for reducing emissions from deforestation. When it comes to reducing emissions, both developed and developing countries agree to take action and to have their commitments verified by the international community. This was the core compromise embedded in the Copenhagen accord, designed to address the undeniable fact that - regardless of historical responsibility and wealth - everybody will need to act if emissions are to fall.

The response among governments and environmentalists has generally been positive, although everybody recognizes that there are still major challenges ahead. The agreement registers the goal of limiting average warming to 2 degrees Celsius and that current commitments do not add up to meeting that goal; negotiators incorporated a mechanism to review the science and commitments in future years. In terms of what to do with the Kyoto Protocol, parties agreed to keep talking.

All of the relevant documentation can be found on the United Nations website, and the final press release (available as a pdf here) provides a nice summary in bullet-point form. The truly wonky can get a nice feel for things by taking a look at the webcasts of three closing press conferences by the United States, Europe and a coalition of environmental groups; the final plenary session is also available in the webcast archive.

Stay tuned for more.