UN Climate Talks produce a Road Map for Climate Change

A deal was reached in Durban after nearly 14 days of talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The roadmap, known as the Durban platform, is seen as the first step towards a new global climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto protocol on climate change. However, it has not yet reached the stage of setting any new targets for emissions cuts or global temperature reduction.

Significantly, the commitment to work towards a new treaty has been signed by 194 parties - both developed and developing nations - and has legal weight if countries attempt to pull out of it.

In the run-up to the decision, representatives from China and India had complained that they should not have such stiff targets as those in Europe and North America, since although their total emissions were higher, the emissions per capita were lower.

Negotiators are starting work on the terms, which need to be agreed by 2015 and come into force by 2020. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the agreement "will guide global efforts to address the causes and impacts of climate change".

How many countries will wait until 2020 before they start combatting climate change?