http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/12/11/climate-accord-good-but-not-good-enough

Though the UN's top climate-change official, Christiana Figueres, and South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister and COP17 president Maite Nkoana-Mashabane hailed the unexpected outcome of COP17 as a victory, environmental groups said the future of the planet was still at risk.

Observers described the outcome as a "landmark deal" towards curbing climate change, but Greenpeace International said the new accord could take the globe "over the 2C threshold [at which] we pass from danger to potential catastrophe".

Greenpeace International head Kumi Naidoo said: "The grim news is that the blockers, led by the US, have succeeded in inserting a vital get-out clause that could easily prevent the next big climate deal being legally binding. If that loophole is exploited it could be a disaster.

"The deal is due to be implemented from 2020, leaving almost no room for increasing the depth of carbon cuts in this decade when scientists say we need emissions to peak."

But Nkoana-Mashabane, who was at the forefront of the negotiations, said the accord has contributed to the fight against global warming.

"I applaud you for what you have been able to accomplish here in Durban," she said. "You were prepared to show the required political will to move this process forward. It is without any doubt in my mind that we have worked together to save tomorrow, today."

Figueres described the deal as "ground-breaking".

"I salute the countries that made this agreement. They have all laid aside some cherished objectives of their own to meet a common purpose - a long-term solution to climate change. I sincerely thank the South African presidency, which steered through a long and intense conference to an historic agreement that has met all major issues," she said.

After intense negotiations that pushed the conference two days behind its schedule and into a new UN Framework Convention on Climate Change yesterday, 194 parties agreed to start negotiations on a new accord which will legally bind countries to honour their pledges.

The new accord will be finalised by 2015 and come into effect no later than 2020.

Under the accord, the Kyoto Protocol, which commits 37 developed countries to reducing their carbon emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2012, was extended for five years. The Green Climate Fund, aimed at making $100-billion available to developing countries by 2020 to mitigate and adapt to climate change, was established.

The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs will hold a briefing today to discuss the effects of the new accord on South Africa.