Cancun needs balance for success

BONN, Germany, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A sustained commitment to tackling climate change is needed to usher in a sea change in political, economic and social thought, a U.N. official said in Germany.

The international community starts a meeting for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change at the end of November in Cancun, Mexico.

World leaders are calling for a balanced set of decisions to find a common environmental agreement at the climate summit.

"It is the sustained and increasingly ambitious long-term response to climate change that will allow a successful adjustment to the other great political, economic and social changes which all countries face," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, in a statement from Bonn, Germany.

Global climate negotiations remain deadlocked after the Copenhagen climate summit last year ended without a binding climate protection agreement.

Figueres said the Cancun conference would be a success if all participants approached the summit with a balanced set of expectations.

She stressed, however, that long-term focus was needed so governments could make necessary adjustments each year, "never ruling out new possibilities or ignoring existing needs for the future."