VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has urged this week's U.N. climate change conference in South Africa to craft a responsible and credible deal to cut greenhouse gases that takes into account the needs of the poor.
Government ministers from more than 100 countries are expected to attend the final sessions of the two-week conference that opens Monday in Durban. The immediate focus is the pending expiration of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement requiring 37 industrialized countries to slash carbon emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Pope Benedict said on Sunday that he hopes the international community would "agree on a responsible and credible response to this worrisome and complex phenomenon, taking into account the needs of the poorest and future generations."
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