Worst polluters delay climate deal

NEGOTIATORS from Europe, islands threatened by rising oceans and the world’s poorest countries sought to keep alive the only treaty governing global warming, struggling against an unlikely alliance of the US, China and India.

Bleary-eyed delegates worked through the night and all day yesterday at the two-week UN conference, with the negotiators looking ahead to a second and final night of meetings expected to last until dawn today.

Delegates from the 194-party conference are trying to map out the pathway toward limiting global emissions of greenhouse gases for the rest of this decade, and then how to continue beyond 2020.