UN climate conference in Panama looking for consensus

The  UN climate change conference that has brought representatives of 194 countries to Panama, is the last chance to produce a consensus on reducing emissions before the Durban Summit in December.

Over 5000 representatives of the conference participants are divided into two working groups: long-term cooperation, and new commitments following the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 .

Participants must achieve a second commitment period for reducing carbon emissions from developed countries in order to prevent global temperatures from rising more than two degrees, which would have catastrophic consequences for human life, scientists have said.

The executive director of the Center for Environmental Advocacy and  Panamanian environmentalists at the conference, Felix Wing, said the meetings will develop a "little slowly " but hopes that by the end of the event ??good progress will have been made  for the launch of the Durban Summit.