"Countries from around the globe agreed on Sunday to forge a new deal forcing all the biggest polluters for the first time to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the plan was too timid to slow global warming."
"A package of accords agreed after marathon U.N. talks in South Africa extended the 1997 Kyoto Protocol - the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts - allowing five more years to finalize a wider pact which has so far eluded negotiators.
Kyoto's first phase - due to expire at the end of next year but now extended until 2017 - imposed limits only on developed countries, not emerging giants like China and India. The United States never ratified it.
Those three countries and the EU held a last-ditch huddle in the conference centre before finally agreeing to wording that commits them to a pact with legal force, although exactly what form it will take was left vague.
Countries also agreed the format of a fund to help poor nations tackle climate change.
But many small island states and developing nations at risk of being swamped by rising sea levels and extreme weather said the deal marked the lowest common denominator possible and lacked the ambition needed to ensure their survival."
Nina Chestney and Jon Herskovitz report for Reuters December 12, 2011
SEE ALSO:
"A Durban Deal" (Mother Jones)
"New Climate Treaty Mandate Approved, Kyoto Extended" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/McClatchy)
"Global Climate Change Deal Reached in Durban" (ENS)
"In Glare of Climate Talks, Taking On Too Great a Task" (New York Times)
"Climate Deal Doesn't Make Things Worse -- Or Better" (AP)
"Analysis: World Still In Arrears On Climate Change Pledges" (Reuters)
"Private Sector Finance Eyed For U.N. Forest Projects" (Reuters)
"Climate Talks Mean Life Or Death For Island States" (Reuters)
"Protesters Expelled From UN Climate Conference Hall" (ENS)
"Landmark Deal Approved At Climate Conference" (AP)
"At Last, Nations Agree To Landmark Climate Deal" (NPR)
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