International delegates gathered in the tiny island nation of Kiribati agree that climate change is a critical issue that must be addressed with more urgency.
The Ambo Declaration, named after the village in Kiribati where parliament sits, was slated to be a non-legally-binding agreement between the nations to present at the larger international climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.
After drafting the declaration at the 19-nation Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC) on Wednesday afternoon, 13 officials spent more than two hours deliberating the document, led by resistance from China.
The Maldives Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Naseem, said he assumed difficulties arise about how to limit emissions and "also how you monitor emissions wether it infringes on some country's sovereignty or their internal affairs".
"A lot of these issues become very sensitive, and when you have a declaration like this, when a clause gives reference, even marginally, to an issue that is sensitive, then we have to be able (to negotiate)," said Naseem, the meeting's facilitator, after the declaration was agreed upon.
"We have finally been successful."
The declaration covers the urgency of addressing the immediate effects of climate change, the need for fast funding to combat these concerns in vulnerable nations, and agrees upon an aim to make concrete decisions at the meeting in Mexico kicking off late this month.
Kiribati President Anote Tong says the meeting tried to focus on where delegates would find agreement "rather than fight and debate over our different positions".
Tong told reporters he was still pushing for a legally binding agreement treaty to promote long-term action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - a bid that was snubbed at last year's summit in Mexico in favour of the Copenhagen Accord.
However, he knows this is a big call and would settle on short-term solutions and dedicated funding boosts.
"It's unrealistic to think that we can resolve these issues in a couple of sessions; it's going to take the next few decades," Tong said.
"There are certain issues which must not take that long.
"The longer we wait the more costly its going to be."
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