UN climate talks in Tianjin call for concerted efforts to combat climate change

The UN climate talks, which opened in China's coastal city of Tianjin, yesterday, started off with renewed calls for concerted global efforts to combat climate change.

The week-long talks, convened at short notice by the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was aimed at ensuring tangible progress ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled for 29 November at Cancun, Mexico.

UNFCCC executive secretary Christiana Figueres repeated in Chinese, Qiu Tong Cun Yi, the famous quote made by the late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, as she called on governments to accelerate efforts to identify common ground for initiating strong action on climate change.

"Governments need to agree on what is doable in Cancun and how it will be achievable in a politically balanced manner," she said, adding, "It is in everyone's ultimate interest to accelerate action in order to minimise negative impacts on all."

"All countries need to renew efforts to consolidate and expand consensus and hammer out a legally-binding agreement at an early date," said Dai Bingguo, China's state councilor, pointing to the urgency.

Figueres urged that negotiators focus on areas of broader consensus, for delivering "a balanced package of decisions" at Cancun.