UN climate talks end with pivotal deal
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-11 13:50

Most of the conference was devoted to the nuts-and-bolts work of the climate pacts.

Environmentalists were pleased at agreements in such areas as how to quantify gas emissions and how to penalize nations that do not meet Kyoto targets.

Others expressed disappointment, meanwhile, that there wasn't more progress in such areas as helping finance developing countries' adaptation to damaging climate change.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has made tackling climate change a key priority for his presidency of the G-8 group of the world's richest nations this year, welcomed the agreement.

"This agreement is the result of years of hard work and is a vital next step in tackling climate change, the biggest long-term challenge facing the world," Blair said in a statement. "Of course it is only a beginning but it is important and demonstrates why it is always worth engaging with America and the rest of the world."