A key climate change meeting in Copenhagen this December could well be the last chance for countries to reach a pact on how to deal with the global warming crisis as the UN panel has no 'Plan B' in case the talks fail.
"There is no 'Plan B' if climate change talks fail at Copenhagen," a senior official of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change told a group of visiting journalists here.
The Conference of Parties must come up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.
The UNFCCC officials were hopeful that the CoP would be able to hammer out an agreement at Copenhagen on tackling global warming takes place between December 7 and 18.
The member nations will have two opportunities to discuss the finer details on steps to be taken to mitigate and adapt to climate change when the negotiators meet in Bangkok later this month and again in Barcelona in November.
"At Copenhagen, there will be either an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, a new treaty or a combination of treaties," the official said on condition of anonymity. He said the Heads of State 'must instruct' negotiators to 'move fast' on the climate change talks.
Several Heads of State would get an opportunity to interact on the margins of the UN General Assembly and the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh on September 24-25.
Expressing hope that the Copenhagen talks would succeed, the UNFCCC official pointed out that not a single country has refused to fulfil its commitment to mitigating the threat of global climate change.
Stressing on the need to move fast on the climate change negotiations, he said: "we have less time at hand to control climate change, or else we will lose the battle."
As per UNFCCC, the political pre-requisites to achieve success in Copenhagen are clarity on targets to mitigate six major greenhouse gases by industrialised countries.
There should be also clarity on nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries; clarity on how to generate support for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries and clarity on the governance structures to manage the generated support.
The current negotiations among various countries focus on reduction of green houses gas emission between 15 and 21 per cent over the 1990 estimates.
In June, India had made a demand that the developed nations reduce emissions up to 79.2 per cent. The European Union has sought 30 per cent reduction on GHG emissions and China 40 per cent.
Official representatives from 170 countries are expected to attend the Copenhagen summit.
