Climate talks offer no help to poor nations

United Nations climate talks achieved minimal success in late 2011, say Christian leaders and activists, agreeing with environmentalists and other experts who claim the outcome at Durban, South Africa, did too little to respond to the impact of climate change on poor countries.

The 17th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to retain the Kyoto Protocol—though Canada withdrew from it—and start negotiations in 2015 for a new legally binding deal to take effect in 2020. A fund for climate aid to poor countries was also agreed upon at the conference, which ran November 29 to December 9.

"We need to listen to vulnerable countries and populations, and think of the legacy we are leaving to our children. Churches should continue to act and pray," said Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, in a December 13 statement.