UN climate talks in Poland have ended with delegates reaching a compromise on how to fight global warming. After 30 hours of deadlock, they approved a way out for a new global climate treaty to be signed in Paris in 2015.
It will replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set targets for developed countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
UN officials and representatives of various countries took part in the meetings for two weeks in Warsaw, which were due to end last week but were extended to thrash out a compromise.
Negotiators agreed that all countries should work to curb emissions from burning coal, oil and gas as soon as possible, and ideally by the first quarter of 2015. They also agreed that the new deal would consist of a patchwork of national contributions to curb emissions that could blur a 20-year-old distinction between the obligations of rich and poor nations.
The pact is due to be agreed in 2015 and come into force after 2020.