The United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Cancún, Mexico, kicked off early this week with a call to stakeholders to remain committed to efforts to arrest climate change.
The host President, Felipe Calderón, in his opening statement, cited last year's hurricane in his country, the floods in Pakistan and fires in
Russia as examples of increasing incidence of natural disasters brought about by climate change.
He said the phenomenon was affecting the poorest and most vulnerable in the society.
"Climate change is an issue that affects life on a planetary scale.
There will be billions of human beings, expecting you to work for all of humanity," he told the UNFCC participants.
The two-week meeting is the sixteenth Conference of the 194 Parties to the UNFCCC and the sixth meeting of the 192 Parties to the Kyoto
Protocol.
Ms Patricia Espinosa, Mexican Foreign Minister and newly elected President of the conference, said: "It is time to make a concerted effort before it is too late. We can only achieve the results if we commit to making progress."
She noted that governments meeting in Mexico could reach a deal to launch action on adaptation, technology transfer and forests; along with creating a new fund for long-term climate finance.
Ms Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary said governments had revealed a growing convergence, which indicated that a balanced set of decisions under both the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol could be an achievable outcome in Cancún.
At the same time, a number of politically charged issues need to be resolved in order to reach such an outcome, she said.
Chief among these is how to take mitigation actions forward. In the course of 2010, all the 37 industrialised nations and 42 developing
countries, including the largest emerging economies, submitted targets and voluntary actions to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions.
These mitigation promises need to be formalised as a matter of urgency.
"When the stakes are high and issues are challenging, compromise is an act of wisdom that can unite different positions in creative ways.
"I am convinced that governments can compromise to find their way to a concrete outcome
"The outcome needs to be both firm and dependable and have a dedicated follow-on process for future work," Ms Figueres said.
Following up from the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Ms Figueres said developed countries had in the course of 2010 revealed a commitment to live up to the fast start finance pledged in 2009.
The countries have announced pledges totalling $28 billion and many of them are now making information available on the disbursement of these funds, she explained.
Close to 15,000 participants, including government delegates from the 194 parties to the UNFCCC and representatives from business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions, are attending the
two-week gathering in Cancún.
With the parties the UNFCCC has near universal membership and is the
parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC parties.
Under the protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialised countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments.
The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous
human interference with the climate system.