"Countries take Durban text very seriously"
2012/10/03

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres has said at the Carbon Forum North America in Washington that talks in at the COP17 in Durban, South Africa, last year were still being taken “very seriously”.

She also said that the progress that is being made towards an international legally binding agreement towards reducing emissions was making "good progress in the right direction".

"We are increasing the scope and coverage of emissions and also increasing the legal nature of those reductions because we are going from voluntary pledges to a legally based agreement," Figueres said.

"However, even if that goes into effect, the fact is that all of those efforts actually represent 60 percent of the global effort that needs to be made if we are to keep to a 2 degree rise."

 At COP17, held in the tropical city of Durban in South Africa, an international agreement to a legally binding agreement being agreed upon by 2015, and implemented by 2020, was accepted.

"No comments I have heard after Durban surprise me or concern me. I am actually very grateful that the countries are taking the Durban text very seriously," she said.