Countries fail to bridge differences at climate talks

Developing countries today blocked a proposal by Russia to bring developing countries and poor nations on a par with developed countries, in order to reduce the chasm between advanced economies and developing countries over emission reduction.

The Russian representatives taking part in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks in Durban, South Africa, had proposed that the convention be amended to bring some of the biggest polluters still being classified as emerging economies or developing countries.

They demanded that taking the changes occurring on global and national economies over time the developing countries should be made to graduate into the list of developed countries.

Earlier, the US had joined the other two major polluters – China and India - who belong to the emerging economies group, in rejecting the demand for a new legal commitment to curb their carbon emissions.

Even as the current round of climate talks face the increasing risk of failure, the European Union is leading efforts to keep alive the Kyoto Protocol, the only legal pact to tackle climate change so far.

A desperate UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, meanwhile, admitted that member nations attending the climate talks are struggling to strike a deal backed by legal force.