As the annual UN conference tackling global warming opens today in Durban, the sunshine city of South Africa, a cloud of pessimism hovers over the long-deadlocked climate negotiations.
While many analysts expect yet another non-event, negotiators and observers say the 12-day UN Framework Convention on Climate Change still has merit as the floundering UN climate regime waits to be rescued from the brink of collapse.
In the lead-up to next year's expiration of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, widely seen as a cornerstone for international negotiations and subsequent global efforts to combat climate change, the divided major parties have shown little sign of nearing an agreement over whether the pact should be renewed.
Other key issues of contention that have stalled previous climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Cancun, Mexico, over the past two years, such as carbon targets, funding shortages and technology transfers, are expected to continue to haunt the Durban talks, given deep rifts and mistrust between rich and poor countries.
Professor Zhang Haibin, an expert on climate diplomacy at Peking University, said: 'Most experts both at home and abroad tend to feel pessimistic about the prospect of this year's gathering, which means it is highly unlikely to see any substantive progress in Durban.'
Zhang said the importance and urgency of climate talks had been weakened by the unfolding financial turmoil in Europe and upheavals in North Africa, which have also dampened the political will among leading powers to hammer out a replacement for the Kyoto pact.