From Copenhagen to Cancún
Environment officials and ministers will meet in Cancún in Mexico for the UN climate change conference to continue efforts towards establishing an international deal on cutting carbon emissions.
The UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) will hold their 16th Conference of the Parties (or COP 16) between the 29th of November and the 10th of December. They will work on a global agreement to succeed the Kyoto protocol (which came into being in 2005 and commits richer countries to cut their emissions by 2012) after the talks at Copenhagen last December failed to replace it.
However, expectations for the meeting's outcome are not high. Several influential figures, including UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, have expressed their doubts that a binding deal will be attained this year.
Former executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Yvo de Boer, said in March that the challenge for Cancún would be to transform the Copenhagen accord into a "functioning architecture". In other words, it is hoped the negotiations will set the basis for a new climate change treaty at further meetings in 2011.
The Indian environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, announced in September that the focus was already "post-Cancún" and de Boer has said that he thinks a final agreement can be made at COP17, which will be held in South Africa in December 2011.