[SUITERS] World climate negotiators reach a deal in Durban.

[CHRISTIANA FIGUERES, U.N. CLIMATE CHIEF] The first step is for countries to really understand how these global challenges are actually national opportunities.

[SUITERS] An agreement, but is there enough action to effectively fight climate change?

Also, a focus on energy in Africa.

But you have electricity, okay, for the stereo.

[Stereo plays]

[SUITERS] South Africa's monumental effort to bring electricity to everyone. But at what cost to the environment?

And America's lead climate negotiator takes us inside the Durban talks.

[TODD STERN, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE] I think more was accomplished than people anticipated and certainly more than anybody thought at the beginning of the conference.

[SUITERS] Is the world really on the road to a global climate treaty? This is "energyNOW!"

South Africa -- home to beautiful beaches, majestic wildlife, and, for two weeks, home to representatives of more than 190 nations trying to come together on one of the most pressing issues of our time -- global warming. The United Nations 17th Annual Summit on Climate Change.

Hello, I'm Tyler Suiters. Welcome to "energyNOW!", a weekly look at America's energy challenges and what we're doing about them. Thalia Assuras is off.

For almost two decades, the world has been grappling with a challenge of its own -- what to do about the rising greenhouse gas emissions that scientists blame for global warming. The latest round of United Nations climate talks wrapped up in Durban, South Africa, last weekend -- an effort to get the whole world, not just a few countries, to agree to binding limits on carbon emissions from fossil fuels. I was in South Africa covering the talks and what has become known as the Durban Platform.

[Clock ticking]

[FIGUERES] This is not a problem of the future. This is not a problem of somebody else. This is a today problem.

[SUITERS] An urgency, UN Climate Chief Christiana Figueres says, not all countries share.

[FIGUERES] The first step is for countries to really understand how these global challenges are actually national opportunities.

[SUITERS] The first challenge in Durban, extending the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, set to expire next year, the first treaty to lock some countries into cutting their carbon emissions.

[CONNIE HEDEGAARD, E.U. CLIMATE COMMISSIONER] For many years, we have been ready, and we are even now ready to be almost alone in a second commitment period for at least five years.

[SUITERS] And the European Union is now almost alone. It committed to another five years of Kyoto's emission cuts, but some developed countries, including Japan and Russia, refused. The United States never even ratified Kyoto, and Canada has now pulled out entirely because it doesn't force developing countries like China and India to reduce their emissions, a major point of contention.

[JAYANTHI NATARAJAN, INDIAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER] Our three agenda items have been pushed to some corner. They've been parked in the place. They're not adopted in the main text, because we want to cooperate.

[SUITERS] But India would not commit, under a Kyoto extension, to cut its own emissions.

Like India, the host country, South Africa, is among those outside the Kyoto Protocol. Like other developing nations, South Africans use more oil and demand more electricity each year. And each year, all those fossil fuels that they burn are affecting the country's climate.

Rajendra Pachauri is behind a new report examining what our energy demands are doing to our world.

[RAJENDRA PACHAURI, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE] Those heat waves which currently take place once in 20 years could possibly, or will take place once every other year by the end of the century. Now, that's pretty serious.

[Activists chanting]

[SUITERS] As activists protested inside the meeting hall, complaining about the lack of drastic action, the negotiations nearly collapsed. But after an extra 36 hours of closed-door talks, and two overnight sessions, weary delegates reached an agreement. Countries will try to forge a new global climate deal by 2015. A victory, according to negotiators, but it's not clear whether that treaty will actually force anyone to cut their emissions.

[TODD STERN, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE] The proof will be in the pudding in terms of willingness of all of these countries to actually get into a negotiation where there's much more parity.

[ANDREW LIGHT, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS] Success out of the meeting is not this whole wrangling over the future of the Kyoto Protocol or the potential mandate for another treaty process.

[SUITERS] The real success, says Andrew Light with the Center for American Progress, involves the Green Climate Fund. By 2020, developed nations will give $100 billion a year to help poor countries fight and adapt to climate change. In Durban, negotiators decided the World Bank will oversee all that money.

[LIGHT] That's been one of the big debates about climate finances, whether it should only be public or private, but this document really does endorse the private side of finance as well. So the potential is fantastic.

[SUITERS] And even if no one knows exactly where the climate funding will go, even if an international climate treaty is still only a promise, Pachauri, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has hope.

[PACHAURI] I'm reasonably sure that rational human beings, which I hope populate most of the regions of this world, will see the benefits in taking action and the kinds of risks in not taking action. We have to create a much brighter and a greener tomorrow.

[SUITERS] A lot of the talk in Durban involved the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the agreement locking some countries into legally binding cuts in their carbon emissions. Because of what happened in South Africa, Kyoto may still have a future, but without major players like Japan, Russia, Canada, the United States, China, and India. Nonetheless, the Kyoto Protocol remains a landmark climate treaty, responding to decades of scientific alarms on global warming.

[REPORTER] Schoolchildren in Philadelphia try to stay cool in a sweltering classroom, as the brutal summer of '88 gets underway.

[SUITERS] 1988 -- a year of heat waves, droughts and fires. The extreme weather looks familiar now, but back then, the world was only beginning to sit up and take notice.

[JAMES HANSEN, JUNE 23, 1988] 1988 will be the warmest year on the record.

[SUITERS] NASA climate scientist James Hansen was among the first to sound the siren, testifying before Congress.

[HANSEN] The greenhouse effect has been detected and it is changing our climate now.

[SUITERS] By 1992, the international community was coming together in an effort to confront this global problem. At the Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil, President George H.W. Bush signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The goal -- stabilize the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

[EILEEN CLAUSSEN, CENTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS] There was a feeling that the way to proceed would be with an international agreement that, perhaps, had some teeth in it.

[SUITERS] Eileen Claussen worked for the Clinton administration as their lead climate negotiator, spending the next five years after Rio trying to take the framework to the next level -- a treaty with legally binding greenhouse gas targets. Not an easy task.

[CLAUSSEN] I probably was a little more optimistic than I should have been.

[SUITERS] Claussen says she quickly discovered the major obstacle to an international agreement -- economic interests, particularly those of the developing world.

[CLAUSSEN] In the case of my discussions with the Chinese, for example, the very strong view at that time, that agreeing to anything on their part, anything specific, would hurt economic growth, and they were all about making sure that they would grow their economy.

[SUITERS] Other emerging countries like India and Brazil had similar concerns. So, in 1997, when the international community gathered for the UN Climate Conference in Kyoto, Japan, only developed nations -- 37 of them -- signed up for binding greenhouse gas targets.

[JENNIFER MORGAN, WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE] We were pretty much celebrating that night in Kyoto.

[SUITERS] For Jennifer Morgan, now with the World Resources Institute in Washington, the Kyoto Protocol was far from perfect, but a start in the right direction.

[BILL CLINTON, JANUARY 27, 1998] Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide problem of climate change.

[SUITERS] The Clinton administration signed the Kyoto Protocol as expected, but Congress was overwhelmingly opposed. So President Clinton never even asked the Senate to ratify the treaty.

[MORGAN] When the U.S. decided not to ratify, it changed the entire game. Because you no longer had that big polluter in that treaty.

[SUITERS] A major blow for Kyoto advocates. And the hits kept coming.

[GEORGE W. BUSH, JUNE 11, 2001] The Kyoto Protocol was fatally flawed in fundamental ways.

[SUITERS] The George W. Bush administration withdrew the United States completely from the Kyoto Protocol.

[CLAUSSEN] The Bush administration came in and basically said, "This is not for us, we're not moving forward with this." And then, the rest of the world, in a pretty unusual step, decided they would continue negotiating the protocol, which they did, and which eventually came into force without the U.S.

[SUITERS] Even though most countries with Kyoto targets cut their emissions, worldwide carbon dioxide soared, now up 35% since 1997. And most of the increase is coming from large developing countries. China and India are the world's first and third largest emitters. The United States is second.

[HARLAN WATSON, U.S. CLIMATE NEGOTIATOR, 2001-2008] We cannot get global emissions down unless you have the big developing country emitters joining in in that effort -- China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and so on.

[SUITERS] Harlan Watson was chief climate negotiator under President George W. Bush. Watson says the reason the Bush administration decided not to participate in Kyoto is that the treaty didn't go far enough in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

[WATSON] That's really been the basis of discussions over the last several meetings of the conference of the parties. And will continue to be the major issue.

[SUITERS] As talks continue, greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever. And the world's biggest emitters still can't agree on binding emission cuts.

[CLAUSSEN] The need to do something on a global basis has never been clearer. But the ability to actually get there, well, this is a very difficult period.

[SUITERS] Claussen says, in the end, climate change may have to pose immediate dangers before global action is taken.

[CLAUSSEN] That might get the public more behind actually taking on this issue, nationally and internationally, and I think if that happened, it's possible that we could actually make some real progress.

[SUITERS] As we mentioned, the European Union pledged in Durban to extend its Kyoto Protocol targets until 2017. But with some countries letting their targets expire next year, the scope of Kyoto will shrink to just 15% of world carbon dioxide emissions. Back in the 1990s, Kyoto accounted for 33% of world CO2.

Still ahead, South Africa's quest to power itself. Trying to energize South Africa with clean energy sources but relying on an old fossil fuel standby.

And later, inside the Durban talks with Chief U.S. Negotiator Todd Stern.

[BARACK OBAMA, NOVEMBER 16, 2011] As we move forward over the next several years, my hope is that the United States, as one of several countries with a big carbon footprint, can find further ways to reduce our carbon emissions.

[BREAK]

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[WOMAN] Care for someone at risk.

[YAMAGUCHI] The American Lung Association asks, are you one of the faces of influenza? See your health care provider about getting vaccinated. It's a safe and effective way to prevent influenza. Visit facesofinfluenza.org.

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[END BREAK]

[SUITERS] If you want to understand why it's so hard for rich countries like the U.S. to agree to greenhouse gas limits with poorer nations, take a trip to South Africa. Ever since the fall of Apartheid, South Africa has been on a mission to give every one of its citizens access to reliable electricity. And almost all of that currently comes from coal-fired power plants. As I saw firsthand, the country is trying to bring cleaner energy sources online, but as innovative as some of the ideas are, coal is still the easiest fuel source around.

[Group singing in native language]

[SUITERS] South Africa -- a vibrant nation, but also a developing country, where about a quarter of its 50 million citizens don't have access to electricity.

The Mkhizes are a family of farmers in the tiny town of Umbumbulu, about 30 miles outside of Durban. A visit to their farmhouse home reveals that they are among the fortunate ones because...

But you have electricity.

[WOMAN] Yes.

[SUITERS] Okay. For the stereo.

[Stereo plays]

[SUITERS] We've got a dance party.

There's not much use for electricity. A lonely light bulb strung from the ceiling, a TV that isn't even working right now. But more and more South African families want to join the Mkhizes and get onto the electrical grid.

[BRIAN DAMES] There's still people out there that don't live the life that you and I live. And we have to address that.

[SUITERS] Brian Dames is the head of Eskom, the company that generates just about all the electricity in South Africa and almost half the electricity on the entire continent.

[DOMES] If you look at this continent at night, you'll still see it's truly a dark continent. With one exception, which is the bottom part, which is South Africa. And that has been built on the basis of having coal available.

[SUITERS] Because, as South Africa's president explained during the Durban climate talks, right now his country doesn't have many alternatives.

[PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA, SOUTH AFRICA] We will continue the use of fossil fuels in the short to medium term.

[SUITERS] Like other developing nations -- China and India, for example -- South Africa is powering its growth and about 85% of its electricity with coal, the cheapest, most abundant, most carbon-polluting fossil fuel there is. The bottom line?

[ZUMA] Renewable energy still costs more than nonrenewable energy.

[SUITERS] But South Africa is trying to change, enacting a 20-year integrated resource plan, an effort to diversify its energy sources. And this is how it all starts. This field of panels outside Durban, completed just this month, is the first commercial solar power project in all of South Africa.

[VINCENZO BELLINI] The very good news is, we completed this, from start to finish, in four weeks.

[SUITERS] Soitec's Vincenzo Bellini says that's one of the benefits of doing business in a developing country -- you almost write the rules as you go.

[BELLINI] The country, initially, had a number of stumbling blocks in order to make energy attractive because of our cheap coal. But as legislation has moved on and the price of energy is increasing sharply in this country, solar power from a financial viewpoint is becoming feasible.

[SUITERS] But South Africa's clean energy technology isn't always exactly clean. The Mariannhill Landfill outside Durban sits above a small power plant, a plant fueled by methane gas produced by decomposing trash, a seemingly endless resource. How long before the trash we see here starts producing methane?

[JOHN PARKIN, ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY] Within three months, we can detect methane gas in this waste. And within nine months, we'll be able to harvest it.

[SUITERS] As John Parkin explains, his team harvests the gas through wells beneath the landfill, leading here.

This gigantic pipe is pulling everything underground, directly from the landfill?

[PARKIN] Yeah, but it's at a slope, because you get condensation. Because you're cooling off gas, and it's a wet gas.

[SUITERS] A potent gas as well. Methane is worse for the environment than carbon dioxide. By burning that methane, the landfill-to-gas plant produces electricity from a cleaner source than coal. And it keeps the methane out of our atmosphere, burning it to turn these generators, powering more than 3,000 homes a year. The Soitec solar field will power only about 200 homes a year. Which is why Eskom is now building two of the world's biggest coal plants to meet South Africa's appetite for energy.

[DAMES] Africa's key issue is adaptation, is how do we deal with the impacts of climate change?

[SUITERS] Not far from the Mkhizes' farm in Umbumbulu, Mngese Mbanasa, a young farmer, says he's already seeing the impacts of climate change. We talked after a recent stretch of unseasonably heavy rains.

[MNGESE MBANASA] What's happening now -- after all this rain, you see what you see here.

[SUITERS] Oh, the moss?

[MBANASA] Yeah, this stuff. This is not supposed to be here.

[SUITERS] It looks more like England.

[MBANASA] Yeah, yeah. It's not supposed to be here. This thing, you find this thing along the rivers, along where there's lots of humid -- but you find it here.

[SUITERS] It's never been here before?

[MBANASA] Yeah, it's not usual.

[SUITERS] Mbanasa plows his fields by hand. Not using tractors means far fewer carbon emissions. But he knows effective change must come on an international level.

What would your message be to all the politicians who are talking, talking, talking in Durban right now?

[MBANASA] They must start implementing.

[SUITERS] If not, the World Bank says, without strong international action, without something cleaner than coal to power national growth, climate change means Africa's farmers will produce 28% less food over the next 70 years. Unless...

[BELLINI] To power the entire country with renewable resources is not really a pipe dream anymore. I think people are seeing that it's a reality, it could be achieved.

[SUITERS] But it's more likely that this country, like other developing nations, will need all the energy it can get -- clean or not.

[DAMES] But I think the key point I would like to leave you with is that South Africa needs a balance of all its natural resources to meet its energy needs.

[Group singing in native language]

[SUITERS] To underscore the connection between South Africa's reliance on coal power and rising greenhouse gas emissions, consider this. From 1999 through 2008, electricity generation and carbon dioxide output in South Africa jumped by more than 25%. South Africa is now the 11th biggest CO2 emitter in the world, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Still ahead, America's role in combating climate change. An interview with Chief Negotiator Todd Stern on where the world goes from here.

[STERN] It was not a legally binding agreement, but those were serious promises that were made, and none of these countries are taking that lightly.

[BREAK]

[GIRL] We're fighting for voices that need to be heard. For cleaner air and your right to breathe it. For those who want to quit smoking and for those who need them to. We're fighting for clear skies over every city. And healthy lungs throughout the country. The American Lung Association isn't just fighting for air, we're fighting for all the things that make it worth breathing. Join us in the fight at FightingForAir.org.

[TEXT ON SCREEN] Can I recycle a beer bottle with a lime wedge suck inside?

Natch. But limes make good compost. Just sayin'. www.grist.org

Laugh now or the planet gets it.

[END BREAK]

[SUITERS] Welcome back. Just a few days after taking office in 2009, President Obama picked Todd Stern as his chief climate negotiator. And it has been a busy couple of weeks for Stern at the Durban climate talks, leading the American delegation. He is now back from South Africa and here in our studios. It's good to have you with us again.

[STERN] Thanks, Tyler.

[SUITERS] After a frantic two weeks in South Africa, the Durban Platform, what was achieved during those talks -- is this an accomplishment or is it simply an agreement among all the parties?

[STERN] You know, I think, in the end of the day, the Durban outcome was a very significant and, to some extent, surprising outcome. I think more was accomplished than people anticipated and certainly more than anybody thought at the beginning of the conference. So let me tell you, two major aspects of it -- First, there was the implementation of really important agreements that were made last year in Cancun. I'll give you two examples. One is the Green Climate Fund, which was agreed to be set up, and the instrument, if you will, that sets it up, the constitution was agreed to for the Green Climate Fund.

The second thing, very important for the U.S., was a system of transparency with respect to all of those pledges that countries made last year in Cancun and after Copenhagen. That's countries across a wide range that account for over 85% of global emissions. We thought really important to have a system of transparency so everybody could see what others were doing, and those guidelines to set that up got written. Okay, so that's one thing and that's with respect to the here and now.

The other really important thing that got done, and that was unanticipated, was that all countries agreed to negotiate a legal agreement that would apply to everybody, that would put all countries -- the major developed and developing countries -- together in a common legal system. That has never happened before, and that's the thing that people refer to in particular as the Durban Platform -- that's a big deal.

[SUITERS] Despite those successes, Todd, this thing almost came crashing down. We're used to the talks going late into the night on Friday. This went through Friday night, Saturday night, and into Sunday. How close was that collapse?

[STERN] Very close.

[SUITERS] Very, okay. Elaborate, please.

[STERN] Very close. You know... It's always an amazing thing in an organization where you have 194 countries and where you fundamentally, it operates on a rule of essentially consensus. So you have to have virtually everybody agreeing. There can be any of a number of elements that can knock you off the track. And we thought, going into even that final plenary session, which went through the night on Saturday night, many, many people thought that this whole thing was going to come down on the basis of objections that various countries had to certain provisions. That was one thing. And, obviously, that didn't happen in the end.

The other thing was, getting the language right with respect to this agreement to negotiate a legal agreement.

[SUITERS] That language is very tricky.

[STERN] Yeah, that was very tricky. You had a lot of important players who were very sensitive to what was being said. And the final logjam wasn't cleared until a famous huddle -- it's becoming famous --

[SUITERS] That's a capital "H" huddle.

[STERN] A capital "H" huddle with concentric circles of people, from those right in the middle to moving out. At about 4:00 A.M. on Sunday morning, with the major developing countries, the E.U., the U.S. and others. And we actually found the language that broke that logjam and got it done, the U.S. did.

[SUITERS] So the agreement in Durban, Todd, is that nations will work toward a new global climate agreement by 2015. Enforcement would begin by 2020. Can we wait that long to take global action?

[STERN] But, see, here's the thing. This is important because a lot of people have the wrong idea. We're not waiting that long. You can't forget that a part -- and a really important part -- of what happened in Durban was that we are implementing key agreements from Cancun. So, what does that mean? All the major players put in targets or actions that they intend to implement between now and 2020. That includes China, that includes India, Brazil, the E.U., U.S., et cetera. So there's real work, important work. It isn't easy work to implement those things. And it was not a legally binding agreement, but those were serious promises that were made, and none of these countries are taking that lightly. So, you've got to implement those targets.

You're setting up a transparency system, which, as I noted, we wrote guidelines for. We're setting up a green fund. Okay, so we made a big step there, but it's not open for business yet, it's not up and running. There's a bunch of work that's got to be done there. We also agreed to set up a climate technology center and network to help disseminate technology to developing countries around the world. And a number of other things. All of that work is now, it's right now, it's between now and 2020. It's not 5 years from now, it's not 10 years from now, it's right now.

[SUITERS] So, progress in Durban, but a long road remains. Todd Stern, chief climate envoy for the U.S., thanks again for being with us.

[STERN] Thanks so much, Tyler.

[SUITERS] For its part, the Obama administration has pledged to cut U.S. greenhouse gases 17% below the 2005 level by 2020, if countries like China are part of the deal. But that offer was tied to climate legislation that failed in Congress last year. Before the Durban talks, "energyNOW!" anchor Thalia Assuras asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson if her agency can deliver on the president's pledge.

[JACKSON] Well, the EPA is going to be part of the solution for sure. But it's not just going to leave us. It's going to leave the Department of Transportation, for instance, who were our partners in developing clean car standards that are going to save billions and billions of barrels of oil, imported oil, and millions -- actually, billions of tons of CO2 pollution over their life. Of course, our utility forthcoming rules on greenhouse gases are going to be part of that. But there's also going to be the investments in research that the Department of Energy is continuing to make and that our other research entities are doing. All those are going to be part. Whether it's new battery technology or other storage technology. All that's going to be part of it.

[ASSURAS] By 2020, still going to happen?

[JACKSON] Well, we have not said, and the president has not asked us to take on that as part of our mandate in developing these rules. Instead, he said, develop rules and regulations that are sensible, that are technology based, that are doable, so that it can help move the country in that direction. You know, we have to get started. And when it comes to climate pollution, when it comes to climate change, every day that we're wasting is an opportunity lost. It's going to cost our children and our grandchildren, and it's also going to cost us economic growth in that sector.

[SUITERS] You can see more of our interviews with Lisa Jackson and Todd Stern on our Web site, energynow.com. That's it for this week. You can also check out our blogs, get the latest energy news, and watch video extras at our Web site. And reach out to us on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Just search for us at energyNOWnews. I'm Tyler Suiters. We'll see you next week.

[END SHOW]