From Reuters:
The United States will host a meeting of major economies on April 18-19 in Washington to advance talks on a global deal to fight climate change, the top U.S. climate negotiator said on Wednesday.
Todd Stern told Reuters he hoped U.N. climate talks in 2010 would lead to agreements on six outstanding issues, including financing for poor countries’ pollution-control efforts, but he said it was unclear whether a legally binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be reached this year.
“Is there going to be a legal treaty? I think we don’t know that,” Stern said.
The Major Economies Forum, which helped nudge big emitters to support a goal of limiting global warming to less than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, was not intended to be a negotiating forum to replace the United Nations, Stern said, reiterating U.S. policy.