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Berlin - There was little hope of a breakthrough in climate change talks, indicated Germany's environment minister on Monday at the end of a two-day conference in Berlin aimed at finding a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol.
However, "we got results, we discussed things we hadn't before," said Norbert Roettgen after the meeting, attended by representatives from 35 countries.
The negotiations were preparation for the next United Nations summit in Durban in November, after a fruitless two-week conference attended by most United Nations members in Bonn last month.
The goal was still to sign a new legally binding treaty on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, Roettgen said. But it was unlikely that this would happen before the end of the year. The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
"The statement 'The Kyoto Protocol is dead' is wrong," Roettgen continued. Rather the treaty was a template to force more countries to agree to legally binding emissions cuts, he said.
"There's still a lot of work to do," Roettgen said, adding that it was important to establish a climate of trust in climate negotiations.
There were some signs of progress however, on plans decided on in Cancun last year to provide $100bn annually to developing countries from 2020 to help them adapt to climate change, Roettgen said.
Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who co-chaired the meeting, said that at the next meeting, in Durban, it would be important to set out the legal framework of a new treaty.
2º target
"We have to give the world community hope in Durban, by taking bigger steps than we have until now," she said.
The Berlin meeting came a month after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that CO2 emissions in 2010 were "the highest in history".
World leaders agreed at the Cancun meeting in Mexico last year to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2ºC, but "the world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2º target is to be attained," according to the IAE.
One of the main problems facing those trying to establish a binding treaty is that the United States and China, the world's biggest emitters, have so far refused to sign up to a legally binding treaty.
It is also unclear how CO2 emissions are to be measured and efforts to limit them enforced.
Germany has tried to jump-start negotiations, with Chancellor Angela Merkel calling for "bold" action on Sunday. "Climate change knows no borders. It affects every country," she said.
