Durban: South African President Jacob Zuma said Monday that the 12,000 delegates expected at the UN climate conference which opened here need to work as a team if any agreement is to be reached – as the UN scrambles for a new deal.

“Delegates should look beyond national interests in regard to the common good for a global agreement to save mankind,” said Zuma as he opened the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change formally called the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) in Durban

Climate change is posing a serious threat and mostly to the developing world, said the South African President, also cautioning delegates against dubbing it as simple environmental issue.

Talking to reporters on the eve of COP17, Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said, new research and findings are “sounding alarm bells” for urgent action to halt global warming.

For Figueres, Africa faces particular threat. “...the increase in temperatures has already allowed the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever to areas and cities which were until quite recently protected from them, due to their geographical locations or altitude,” said Figueres.

African delegates are waiting eagerly for the discussions to conclude on a common agreement and hope for a consideration of their climatic strategy that has among priorities the adaptation for tackling the multiple effects of climate change on the continent.

Some 12,000 delegates are expected to camp in Durban for the two-week marathon conference.

Even before the first day ended, serious differences were clear between developed and developing countries over a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol that has dampened hopes for reaching binding agreements during arduous 12-day parleys.

India, along with other BASIC countries has “emphasised that the Kyoto Protocol is the cornerstone of the climate regime and its second commitment period is the essential priority for the success of Durban Conference.”

They called upon the Conference to clearly establish the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol where the developed country parties to the Kyoto Protocol shall undertake quantified emission reduction commitments.

Topping the agenda of talks involving delegates from 194 countries including India is the fate of the Kyoto Protocol, the only global agreement with targets for curbing greenhouse -gas emissions, whose current targets expire at the end of next year.

The UN expects the Durban conference can build needed institutions that will help support the developing country response to climate change. Campaigners want governments to state how they are to move forward together to achieve their agreed goal to limit the average global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, and how to review progress towards that goal between 2013 and 2015. (End)