Envoys in Durban also working to set up a Green Climate Fund that would channel a portion of the $100 billion in climate aid that developed countries have pledged to mobilize by 2020.
"Parties want the Green Climate Fund to be launched in here," said Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the South African foreign minister who is presiding over the meeting.
Crisis And Quake
With Japan recovering from an earthquake and European Union leaders meeting today in Brussels to save their common currency, this year's climate talks have sidestepped increasing current pledges to reduce emissions that the International Energy Agency says are insufficient to contain the rise in temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, a key goal of the negotiations.
While Kyoto set emissions caps for industrial nations, it included only voluntary measures for developing nations such as China and India, which have become two of the three biggest polluters since the treaty was negotiated in 1997.
Europe isn't going to weaken its positon, said U.K. Secretary of State for Environment and Climate Change Chris Huhne.
"We're reaching the point where a number of delegations have got to decide if they want to get a treaty with real environmental integrity," Huhne said today. "I expect that this will go on, and it may go on through the night, and we will stand firm for a treaty that actually delivers the goods in reducing carbon emissions."
Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, an envoy from Democratic Republic of Congo who speaks for African nations at the talks, said at a news conference that it's "do or die" for the talks.
"If there's no deal it means we won't do what's right for the planet," he said. "We'll be punished by countries that can actually afford to wait."