U.S. holds cards at Durban climate talks

The U.S. position on climate talks in Durban, South Africa, may be the make-or-break point for the durability of the Kyoto Protocol, officials say. Delegates from more than 190 countries and the European Union gathered Monday in Durban to debate the future of the greenhouse-gas limiting Kyoto Protocol, parts of which expire next year. The United States in 2001 abandoned Kyoto and major economies like Japan, Russia and Canada said they might not accept any new mandated emission targets. Alden Meyer, director of policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Christian Science Monitor the outlook for this year's climate talks was "pretty discouraging." Washington has said it wasn't ready to sign onto anything concrete until the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues its report in 2014. "Our thinking is that putting the form of the action before the substance doesn't make a great deal of sense," said U.S. negotiator Jonathan Pershing in Durban. Delegates from the EU, however, said they wanted to extend parts of Kyoto but not without some form of commitment from major emitters like the United States and China. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South African minister of international relations, was quoted as saying "we're under no illusion that this is an easy process."