DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (AP) - The top U.N. climate official says she is confident that industrial countries will renew pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year.
Christiana Figueres spoke Saturday to The Associated Press at the halfway mark of a 192-party conference.
She says that negotiations are focused on how the next period of commitments will be shaped, who will participate and under what rules.
She says the “discussion this week is not about the ’if,’ it’s about the ’how’” _ referring to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol reduction targets for industrialized countries.
The protocol’s future has been in doubt because rich countries want nations such as China and India also to accept binding emissions targets.
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