United Nations envoys from 193 countries are trying to end two weeks of climate negotiations today with an agreement

United Nations envoys from 193 countries are trying to end two weeks of climate negotiations today with an agreement that satisfies both the richest and poorest advances and treaty negotiations.

"He is beginning to accumulate," said UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne today in Cancun, Mexico. "We are in a much better position than they were in Copenhagen, but potentially anything to stop one or more countries to have a tantrum and throwing all his toys out the pram."

After pushing last year for a legally binding agreement to limit emissions collapsed in Copenhagen, the UN reduced its ambitions. Huhne said last night that negotiations lasted until 3:30 am and sent "found a potential way through" difficult issues. Disputes over how to reduce greenhouse gases can kill a deal to protect forests and give as much as $ 100 billion a year in aid to vulnerable countries by 2020.

China, India, Brazil and South Africa are urging industrialized nations to accept new restrictions on fossil fuel emissions after current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Japan, Canada and Russia refused, saying that the extension of the agreement misses the point because the world's two biggest emitters, the U.S. and China, are not included.

A failure in Cancún to achieve that could lead to a loss of confidence in the international effort led by the UN to curb global warming. A dispute over the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty that establishes the first program in the world of the emission limits, damaged two weeks of talks. Christiana Figueres, the UN diplomat leading the discussions, said the countries were so far away that the solution was not on the agenda of this meeting.

Hard Day "

UN envoys in Cancun is working with a text that is "very progressive" on the issues of transparency and how to measure, report and verify emissions reductions, the EU Commissioner for the Environment, Connie Hedegaard, said today.

"Today will be a difficult day, and one day very, very long," Hedegaard said in an interview in Cancun.

Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto yesterday reiterated his country's opposition to a new period of engagement, saying the Kyoto protocol "covers only 27 percent of global CO2 emissions related to energy." Japan "will not be associated with the establishment of the second commitment period," he said.

Keep Hope

As talks between the final scheduled day, some delegates said they remained hopeful an agreement on the forests and aid, and the creation of an advisory body to adapt to climate change.

"We have differences, but can be a bridge," said Minister of Environment of Brazil Izabella Teixeira, who along with the UK was taken by the UN to reach a consensus, in an interview. Claudia Salerno, Venezuela's envoy, who was among the six countries that blocked an agreement last year, said, "We find convergence."

Scientists say that glaciers are melting and sea level as the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing at the highest levels recorded. This year may be the hottest in history, the World Meteorological Organization said on 02 December, and noted that the additional warming of the atmosphere is inevitable, regardless of whether the planned measures are taken in Cancun.

Delegates were working on language that would aim to sustain the gains of temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Current commitments to reduce emissions could bring temperatures rise 2.5 to 5 degrees by the year 2100, the United Nations Environment Programme said 23 November. Small island countries grappling with rising seas are pushing for a limit of 1.5 degrees.

Coming on board

"Most countries are now compatible with 1.5 more than 2 degrees," said Albert Binger, a scientific adviser to the delegation of Grenada, in an interview. "While the world will be more the effects of climate change, including more countries come on board."

Some languages now in the draft text, such as requiring developed nations to begin reducing emissions of the highest peak in 2015, is likely to remain in a final agreement, Jake Schmidt, a climate expert at the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said in Cancun.

"I'm very disappointed, because we are playing around the edges," said Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, in an interview. "The positions are diluted. The greenhouse gases are pumped into the atmosphere."

Bolivian President Evo Morales, who wants to further reduce emissions from rich countries and an international tribunal to protect the environment, said that "trying to find a middle way is an attempt to lie to people."

Last year, Bolivia joined Venezuela, Sudan, Cuba, Nicaragua and Tuvalu to block the Copenhagen agreement, an agreement negotiated by about 30 leaders, including U.S. Barack Obama President and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China, if adopted as the official text of the United Nations.

Cancun Package

The agreements are being negotiated in Cancun are:

A fund to channel as much as $ 100 billion a year in 2020 to help developing countries clean industries and adapt to rising temperatures. How will you manage and who will sit on its board of directors will work next year.

A forest protection program known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD. Forestry projects to be funded and may allow developing nations to make money in carbon markets through the allocation of forests to absorb greenhouse gases.

An "adjustment committee" to advise the nation on how to prepare for and adapt to climate change.

How to monitor, report and verify emissions reductions for developed countries and climate protection measures taken by the poorest, or MRV in the jargon of the UN.

Runaway Husband

Mexican authorities hosting the talks, said documents are ready for final review and more important, he said.

"The fact that the conversation kept going day and night, is a very good sign," said Environment Minister Juan Elvira Mexico in an interview today. "Mexico needs to build bridges with all countries, including Bolivia and the rest of the parties."

Milton Nogueira da Silva, an official of climate change in Brazil, compared with the climate talks for marriage. Negotiations are now in the "right to marry" stage, said in an interview. "Everyone is hoping that the boyfriend did not run away like last year in Copenhagen."