Australia aims to set standard

CANBERRA: Just weeks before a UN deadline to try to agree on a tougher global deal to fight climate change, nations can't agree on the design or legal nature of a new pact.

Australia has crafted a framework it says can bring together emissions reduction steps by rich and poor nations to slow the pace of climate change and the idea has gained some acceptance. But mistrust by developing nations remains.

The United Nations says the existing Kyoto Protocol needs to be expanded or replaced from 2013 to try to draw in the United States, which never ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and big developing countries, which are now among the world's top greenhouse gas emitters. Kyoto commits 37 industrialized countries, except the US, to economy-wide emissions targets between 2008-12, while developing nations are supposed to implement voluntary steps according to their abilities.