Earth Equity News

Major Economies Forum in New York Makes Little Progress on Road to Cancun. By Charles J Hanley, AP, September 21, 2010."In two days of talks, major economic powers discussed ways to move ahead in slowing and coping with climate change, but no one sees a grand global deal anywhere on the horizon, a lead U.S. negotiator said Tuesday. 'This was a very constructive meeting,' special climate envoy Todd Stern said of the 17-nation session. But 'no one is expecting or anticipating in any way a legal treaty to be done at Cancun this year'… Replying to a reporter's question Tuesday, the State Department's Stern said the broader U.N. talks, in their quarterly sessions, have been "going backward" this year. As the negotiations sputter along, the world grows warmer. The January-August period this year was the warmest globally in 131 years of record keeping, NASA reports. The New York talks were the ninth round of the Major Economies Forum, established by U.S. President Barack Obama last year as a parallel track to the U.N. process. The dialogue involves the rich industrial nations of the 'north,' as well as big developing countries, such as China, India and Brazil."