11/28/11 5:35pm

Article By: Marty Niland

As world climate talks open today in Durban, South Africa, CTV News reports that Canada is set to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, another serious blow to the 1997 agreement, which expires next year.

The Kyoto agreement commits 37 industrialized nations to binding reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases, which scientists have linked to global warming. Nations have debated for years whether to extend or replace the expiring deal, most recently at talks in Denmark and Mexico. However, wealthy countries have said they will not commit to further reductions unless developing countries like China, India and Brazil accept legally binding cuts on their own emissions.

Chief U.S. negotiator Todd Stern told the New York Times he has no fixed ideas about what form a new agreement might take or a time frame for reaching it. But he said all countries, including the United States, must take meaningful unilateral steps to control their carbon dioxide emissions, with the greatest burden falling on the 20 or so largest economies, which account for more than 80 percent of global carbon output.

After a meeting today at the White House, President Barack Obama and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso released a joint statement on a host of issues, including the Durban talks. The U.S. and European Union will "work closely together to ensure a positive, balanced outcome in Durban," according to the statement. The United Nations climate talks in South Africa should move the world "a step further towards a comprehensive, global framework" for cutting greenhouse gases, the statement said.

South African President Jacob Zuma kicked off the Durban conference by urging delegates from 191 countries and the European Union to look beyond their own national interests and look at the effect of climate change on the world, The Associated Press reports. "For most people in the developing world and Africa, climate change is a matter of life and death," he said. In the lead up to this year's conference, severe storms hit South Africa, killing at least 11 people over two weeks and damaging the roof of the complex where the climate talks are being held.