"U.N. climate negotiations have made greater progress towards agreeing a 2015 deal to bind all nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions than the lead-up to the previous attempt in 2009, former U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters.

Envoys from almost 200 nations are aiming to agree this year on the main elements of a text to be signed by their leaders in Paris in late 2015 to tackle the emissions from 2020 that U.N.-backed scientists say are causing more severe droughts, flooding and a rise in sea levels.

'The process is definitely further advanced a year before Paris than it was a year before Copenhagen (in 2009),' de Boer said in an interview in London on Tuesday."

Ben Garside reports for Reuters July 9, 2014. [2]

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"U.S., China Ink Coal, Clean Energy Deals But Climate Differences Remain" (Reuters) [4]

"US, China Look To Energy for Common Ground Amid Friction" (Christian Science Monitor) [5]