The eye-catching winner of the Best Green Stand Awards at COP 17, the structure is made from recycled crates.

"Progressive and Balanced"

As a member of the G77+China, the Chinese delegation at Durban was fully engaged in consultations and negotiations on each issue. Pragmatic, positive and willing to compromise, China made every effort to work with parties on different levels, to communicate and coordinate with fellow developing countries and to hold dialogues and consultations with developed countries. The Chinese delegation approached the conference seriously and conscientiously, giving full support to the hosting country and played a constructive role in the achievement of a successful outcome at the conference.

With the best interests of its people and nations around the world at heart, the Chinese representatives in Durban reiterated China's devotion to find political solutions to the climate change challenge. China is fully committed to taking stronger domestic measures toward mitigating climate change and to advancing development of the low-carbon green economy. The Chinese government is eager to be fully engaged in the international negotiation process over a global framework to tackle the issue.

The Chinese delegation commented that Durban produced a "progressive and balanced outcome."

Countries in attendance passed a swathe of decisions on such topics as the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the Green Climate Fund and a new process to arrange emission-cutting pledges after 2020.

Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation and vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said that the outcome is fully in accordance with the mandate of the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Roadmap. Decisions made, he added, were also in line with the two-track negotiation process and the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities."

"The conference made decisions on the arrangement of the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, an issue which is of the utmost concern for developing countries," Xie noted.

The "Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (AWG-DPEA)" was agreed upon at the talks, under which the Kyoto Protocol's second commitment period will start in 2013.

Passed in December 1997 and effective as of February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding treaty in force to date. It sets compulsory targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European Community to reduce carbon emissions to five percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The first commitment period of the protocol will expire at the end of 2012. A refining of the details of the second commitment period was a major topic at the talks in Durban.