Seychelles delegates to the recent Montreal United Nations Convention on Climate Change have welcomed the outcomes of the global warming conference, despite the lack of a breakthrough in negotiations with the USA. The conference, which took place from Nov 28 to Dec 10, adopted more than 40 decisions, which environmentalists hope will strengthen global efforts to fight climate change. The meeting provided a follow up to the 1997 Kyoto Convention on Climate Change, at which world leaders signed up to an agreement to cut carbon dioxide emissions and attempt to slow global warming. But with the world's largest green house gas emitter, the US, refusing under the Bush administration to recognize the impact of global warming, the principal outcome of the Montreal meeting was an agreement to hold further talks. With the refusal of the USA to ratify the convention the meeting did little to reduce the overall emission of green house gases and resultant global warming and climate change, which hits small island states, such as Seychelles, particularly hard. Despite the fact that $13 million is a relatively small sum given the task to which it will be put, Seychelles may also benefit from the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism, which allows heavy polluting countries to fund environmentally friendly development and adaptation projects in less polluting countries and claim the resulting carbon credit.

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