The top UN climate body took a pessimistic tone in its review of the international talks in Cancun, Mexico, saying the progress achieved there was far from enough.
Although the vaguely worded agreement that nearly 200 countries managed to reach at the end of an overnight negotiating session in December is 'the most ambitious global effort to date', the pledged emission reduction targets 'are inadequate in the longer term to keep the world under the agreed maximum global temperature rise of two degrees', the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change said on its website.
Glaring differences remain, as none of the major parties appears willing to make key concessions first, mostly on substantial steps to cut carbon emissions, at the possible expense of their own economies.
The disheartening assessment comes as talks reach a critical juncture this year after a disastrous failure akin to the Copenhagen debacle in 2009 was barely avoided at Cancun.
Major players in the talks such as China and several other large developing nations have upped the ante by urging that a global deal on tackling climate change be cut in Durban, South Africa, at the end of the year.
Is it a realistic expectation? Mainland negotiators are pessimistic.