Poorer nations seek help in global warming

TIANJIN - Environmental officials from developing countries urgently called upon wealthier industrial nations to ramp up their commitments on carbon emissions, and to provide the financial and technological support their nations need to combat global warming.

Officials from the BASIC group of developing countries - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - held a two-day ministerial level meeting following the Tianjin climate talks to coordinate their stance on the year-end climate conference in Cancun, Mexico.

The ministers reaffirmed that the existence of the Kyoto Protocol - the only legally binding treaty to reduce carbon emissions - as a fundamental and essential element of international climate negotiations.