UN climate conference approves landmark deal

The president of the UN climate conference in South Africa has announced agreement on a programme mapping out a new course by all nations to fight climate change over the coming decades, AlJazeera reported.

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who is also South Africa's foreign minister, said the 194-party conference had agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime to enforce their commitments to control greenhouse gases.

"We came here with plan A, and we have concluded this meeting with plan A to save one planet for the future of our children and our grandchildren to come," Nkoana-Mashabane said.

"We have made history," she said.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said the deal represents "an important advance in our work on climate change".

Delegates agreed to start work next year on the new treaty to be decided by 2015 and to come into force by 2020.

The process for doing so, called the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, would "develop a new protocol, another legal instrument or agreed outcome with legal force" that would be applicable under the UN climate convention.

However, key components of Sunday's accord remain to be hammered out, and observers say the task will be arduous.

Thorny issues include the still-undefined legal status of the accord and apportioning cuts on emissions among rich and poor countries.