Following negotiations that ran through early Saturday morning, delegates at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) in Cancun adopted by consensus the Cancun Accords, a series of documents that will provide the basis for efforts to confront climate change after the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The accords include a $30 billion-package for 2012 to aid nations taking immediate actions to halt effects of global warming, as well as financing for long-term projects to protect the environment through a Green Fund, which will provide $100 million annually for adaptation and mitigation measures.

Delegates also approved the creation of the forestry program Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) to facilitate the flow of resources to communities dedicated to forest conservation.

The President Felipe Calderón congratulated representatives of nearly 200 countries and the Conference authorities, including Ambassador Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, who headed COP16/CMP6 activities throughout the two-week conference.

"You have broken that inertia (toward negativity) and have traded a feeling of collective failure for one that recovers hope in multilateralism,” President Calderón Hinojosa said after the Cancun Accords were approved.

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conference, parties, cancun, accords, cop16, mexico