Developing nations push climate targets

Developed countries are keen to begin negotiations on a new treaty to cap emissions from all countries.

At last year's U.N. climate talks in Durban, negotiators agreed that such a deal must be reached by 2015 at the latest, and go into force in 2020.

But the BASIC countries said even a new treaty should be negotiated along the same principles as the current U.N. climate convention, keeping a division between rich and poor nations.

The Kyoto Protocol states that countries are bound by the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which puts most of the burden for combating climate change in the hands of rich nations with larger historical rates of emissions.

The Durban Platform is by no means a process to negotiate a new regime, nor to renegotiate, rewrite or reinterpret the Convention and its principles and provisions, they said, signalling they will not accept the same treatment as rich countries in any new treaty.

The statement shows the developing nations are concerned about the pace of the negotiations, said Li Yan, a climate campaigner with Greenpeace China.

Big developing countries, especially China, will need some time to do its homework and think of what it can do, she said.