Poor nations demand world climate action

The poorest of the world's nations at a U.N. climate summit in South Africa say they want talks on a new global climate agreement to start immediately. The Least Developed Countries bloc and small island states, many of which are vulnerable to climate impacts such as drought or inundation, proposed in Durban that a new climate deal be finalized within a year, the BBC reported Friday. The proposal puts them in conflict with many rich nations, but also with developing world partners such as China, India and Brazil that say talks on a new mandate should not begin yet because developed nations have not met existing commitments. But smaller and poorer countries say there is no time to waste. "We put forward our mandate for a new legal agreement today to get things moving quickly in an effort to respond to the urgency of our challenge," said Selwin Hart, lead negotiator for Barbados, speaking for the Alliance of Small Island States. "We can no longer afford to wait. We need to conclude the new deal in the next 12 months." "Delaying a new agreement or deeper targets until 2020, as some of the big emitters have proposed, is not an option," Hart said. "It is quite frankly a dereliction of our collective responsibility to present and future generations."