Europe to push for binding climate deal

GOVERNMENT ministers from across the world are joining UN climate talks in South Africa this week as Europe pushes for action on a new legally-binding deal to tackle global warming.

The EU wants to see agreement at the latest round of talks to negotiate a new international deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions that would be concluded by 2015 and take effect by 2020.

But the plans face opposition from major polluters, including India, whose negotiators say they are not in Durban to launch a process for a new treaty, and for whom the issue is a “red line”.