Durban climate change conference starts

The COP 17 climate change conference got underway in Durban, South Africa today with an opening ceremony attended by South African President Jacob Zuma. Discussions at the conference - due to end on 9 December - will aim to advance the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the Bali Action plan, agreed at COP 13 in 2007, and the Cancun Agreements, reached at COP 16 last December. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) executive secretary Christiana Figueres said, "There is a sense amongst governments that the speed and scale of action to respond to the challenge [of climate change] must be rapidly increased." She added, "There are two main tasks that the conference can accomplish. One relates to building the institutions that will help support the developing country response to climate change ... The second pressing task for governments is to answer the question of how they will move forward together to achieve their agreed goal to limit the average global temperature rise to 2°C, and how to review progress towards that goal between 2013 and 2015." Figueres noted, "A decision on the future of the Kyoto Protocol will be a central part of the Durban outcome."