Climate expert urges talks to focus on 'green growth'

THE next international climate talks should focus on convincing countries of the merits of "green growth", rather than pushing for more ambitious targets on global warming, the former United Nations top climate official said yesterday.

Yvo de Boer, who steered the UN climate process for four years until earlier this year, warned that the conference in Cancun could be a re-run of last year's talks in Copenhagen, which were seen as a failure in many quarters after they failed to deliver a new legally-binding global deal on cutting emissions.

Writing in the journal Nature, Mr de Boer said there had not been agreement on what Copenhagen was supposed to achieve, and there was a widespread fear ambitious climate policies could damage economic growth.

He said the Cancun talks should focus on practical steps, including helping poorer countries assess the potential for green growth and their national responses to a changing climate.

His comments come after the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) issued a report which showed that all the pledges by countries to curb emissions under the voluntary Copenhagen Accord would deliver less than two-thirds of the cuts needed to limit temperature rises to 2C.