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UN climate talks are off the life-support machine, following a last-minute agreement that gives the Kyoto Protocol a lifeline. It establishes a global Climate Fund and, while falling short of the emissions cuts needed, lays out a path to move towards them.

National self-interest and brinkmanship must not be allowed to sabotage the Cancun climate talks and risk reversing the progress made over the past two weeks, warned Oxfam on the penultimate day of the increasingly volatile Summit.

Negotiators should begin UN climate talks with far more urgency and resolve following a year of weather-related disasters, record temperatures, flooding and rising sea levels.

The poorest people who need the most help to adapt to a changing climate are largely being bypassed by the small amount of climate funds now being disbursed, says a new Oxfam report published today at the UN climate change talks in Tianjin, China.

Emma Seery, Oxfam's spokesperson, said:

As African leaders return home from the AU Summit, they must now take immediate action to implement the maternal and child health promises they have made here, a coalition of civil society organizations said today.

World leaders are set to fail their first test on climate change since Copenhagen and put the world on track for almost four degrees of warming, as the 31 January deadline for countries to submit emission reduction targets under the Copenhagen Accord nears.