"Durban Talks Unlikely To Strike Climate Deal: U.N"

"Major climate talks in South Africa at year-end will be unlikely to strike agreement on a new pact, but will be important in determining the shape of long-term efforts to tackle climate change, a senior U.N. climate official said on Tuesday.

The future of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing U.N. plan which obliges about 40 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions until 2012, is widely seen as under threat. Japan, Canada and Russia have said they will not extend it, while the United States never signed up to it.

"It's too early to call the Durban result, expectations are not high at the moment," said Adrian Macey, chair of U.N. Kyoto Protocol negotiations, referring to the Nov 28 to Dec 9 talks in South Africa.

"But my own view is that whatever happens, I don't see all 191 parties under the U.N. abandoning efforts to develop a comprehensive effort in the longer term for climate change action," Macey told a climate conference in Wellington, New Zealand."

Adrian Bathgate reports for Reuters August 3, 2011.

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