中国气候变化信息网 China Climate Change Info-Net

The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), an international non-governmental organization, said Monday that the first week of talks at the UN Climate Change Conference here showed "satisfactory" progress.

Despite the heat and humidity in Bali, a resort island of Indonesia, the overall atmosphere at the negotiations is "constructive and agreeable," WWF said.

All substantial issues on the agenda are on the table, from mitigation to adaptation and deforestation to technology, and are being approached with a relatively "open mind", especially by a range of developing countries, WWF said in a press release.

Most of the developing countries have come to Bali with considerable ambitions and are showing flexibility, according to Hans Verolme, Director of WWF's Global Climate Change Program.

"A group of major emerging economies including China, South Africa, and Brazil showed clarity of vision this week and made concrete proposals to tackle technology transfer by proposing a platform for public-private partnerships for technology cooperation," he said.

Rich countries generally added to the positive atmosphere, WWF said in a press release, urging that industrialized countries should engage with the developing countries to enhance the trust that has been built up in the past days.

"They (developed countries) need to confirm the target range of reducing emissions from industrialized countries by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. They need to recognize the need of developing countries for technology transfer and financing of new, cleaner technologies - and they need to put up the cash to support their good intentions," said the press release.

Also, the Adaptation Fund needs to be settled to the benefit of the Least Developed Countries, which already suffer most from the damaging impacts of climate change, it said.

The Indonesia Presidency of the conference faces a challenge, which is to transform the positive atmosphere into real ambition. This ambition must be strong enough to drive negotiations in the second week, it added.

"We may be getting closer to a decision to Bali Mandate, but we are still far removed from a political deal towards deep cuts in carbon emissions," said Verolme.

"We still need to agree the goal for this negotiation that is coherent with what the IPCC tells us needs to be done to avoid dangerous climate change," he said.

Bali is currently hosting a two-week U.N. climate change conference which is tasked with drawing up a "roadmap" for negotiations on a new climate change regime before then current phase of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.