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Drafting new climate agt to become key element of Durban “road map”-FM

The main result is the decision to work out a new agreement. A working group has been set up. It will draft the agreement

MOSCOW, January 23 (Itar-Tass) —— The drafting of a new climate agreement by 2015 should become the main element of the Durban “road map”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday, January 23, after a meeting between Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and French Ambassador in Moscow Jean de Gliniasty.

Gatilov and Gliniasty discussed “a set of questions included in the U.N. Security Council agenda and related, among other things, to the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as international cooperation against piracy”.

“When exchanging views on further development of international climate cooperation, it was stressed that the implementation of the Durban ‘road map’ becomes particularly important in the light of the U.N. conference held in Durban in late 29011,” the ministry said. “The drafting of a new global agreement on climate protection should become its main element.”

The ministry also said that “as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the sides confirmed the usefulness of further regular exchange of views on pressing issues included in the U.N. agenda”.

The main result of the just concluded U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference is the decision to draft a new agreement that should be binding and should replace the Kyoto Protocol, the Kremlin's adviser and special representative for climate affairs Alexander Bedritsky said earlier.

“The main result is the decision to work out a new agreement. A working group has been set up. It will draft the agreement,” he said.

Bedritsky was referring to the Durban Platform, an agreement among the participants in the climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, of November 29 that they would start drafting a new document to replace the outdated Kyoto Protocol. It will also seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease global warming and will be binding on all signatories.

Bedritsky expressed confidence that this document could be enacted sooner because the climate is changing while countries are haggling over quotas, rights and funding.

However he welcomes the very fact that work has begun. “We could have expected more, but a certain step forward has been taken. We think a key decision is the decision to create a group for stepping up work under the Durban Platform. This group will have to draft a new agreement not later than 2015,” he said.