Govt welcomes Cancun climate deal

The Government has welcomed progress made at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Cancun, Mexico, but the Green Party says it falls short of what is needed to avert the worst effects of global warming.

The conference has approved a two-part deal that creates a Green Climate Fund and takes other small steps to deal with climate change.

Climate Change Minister Nick Smith and International Climate Change Negotiations Minister Tim Groser said the deal represented a significant step forward toward a global, legally binding and comprehensive agreement.

"The Cancun agreements are the most significant internationally on climate change in a decade and provide for moving forward positively after the loss of confidence a year ago in Copenhagen," they said last night.

The Green Party's climate change spokesman, Kennedy Graham, said today the agreements were a positive step.

"What Cancun has done is restore confidence in the negotiation machinery that last year's Copenhagen experience left in tatters," he said.

"But when the substance of current pledges is analysed, we must realise we're in danger of cementing in national pledges that are insufficient to avoid dangerous climate change."

Mr Groser said key components of the agreements included:

* The framework for emission reductions targets for developed countries and mitigation actions for developing countries;

* Systems for measurement, reporting and verification;

* Enhanced actions to assist adaption and measures to reduce deforestation; and

* A new Green Climate Fund and the development and transfer of green technologies.

"New Zealand argued that a simple extension of the Kyoto Protocol only covering 27 per cent of global emissions would not work," Dr Smith said.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, the conference president, gave the nod to the decisions yesterday over the objections of Bolivia, which said the deal didn't go far enough.

Decisions at UN climate talks are typically taken by consensus, but Ms Espinosa said that didn't mean one country had the right to veto decisions supported by all the others.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said governments had laid tentative groundwork for a global agreement to fight climate change.

"It was hoped that Cancun could establish a platform for progress, and now countries are leaving with a renewed sense of goodwill and some sense of purpose," said WWF climate change spokesman Gordon Shepherd.

- NZPA