World unites for climate talks

Representatives from almost every country on the planet are about to start 12 days of talks aimed at getting the ball rolling for a new global climate change pact.

Last Updated: 3:09AM GMT 01 Dec 2008

The forum of the 192-member UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland comes a the mid point of a two-year process launched by the international community in Bali a year ago.
The aim is to forge a new global treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009 that will be the most ambitious and complex environmental deal ever made.
The stakes are high, with scientists warning that failure to take action on a worldwide basis will inflict irreparable damage to the planet's climate system.
It means humans have to find ways of producing power, feeding and equipping themselves and travelling that produce fewer greenhouse emissions.
The gases act like a blanket in atmosphere to make the Earth habitable, but in excess they heat up the planet's surface, wreaking changes to the climate system that could threaten the lives of millions of people.
"I honestly think that what happens between Poznan and Copenhagen on climate change will affect the world that we leave behind us more than anything that we do," Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC executive secretary, said on the eve of the talks.
But agreeing is a Herculean task.
Rich countries hold most of the world's wealth and consume most of its resources, but are pushing for concessions from China and India, which are becoming major polluters in their own right.
Developing countries, meanwhile, want the West to help pay for them to grow their economies in a sustainable manner and stump up cash to shore up the defences of poor countries most vulnerable to climate change.