The European Union said the agreement reached at a global climate summit today was an important step on a "long and challenging" road towards a binding treaty to tackle global warming.
Envoys at the United Nations meeting in Cancun, Mexico, agreed after two weeks of negotiations to a climate-protection package including a fund that would manage a "significant share" of the $100 billion pledged last year in aid for poorer nations and a
plan to reduce deforestation.
"We have strengthened the international climate regime with new institutions and new funds," Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement today.
"All parties should now take domestic action to reduce or limit their emissions so that we can keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius."
The next UN summit aimed at ironing out a global climate framework for when the
Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 is scheduled to take place next year in Durban, South Africa.