The European Union (EU) welcomes the solid progress made at the United Nations climate change conference which ended on Saturday in Nairobi, the European Commission (EC) said here on Saturday.

"The Nairobi conference resulted in a series of decisions and new initiatives to support developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to climate change," the EC said in a written statement.

The meeting, the first ministerial conference on climate change held in sub-Saharan Africa, brought together the 189 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 166 Parties to the Convention's Kyoto Protocol.

The EU's executive arm said the decisions made by the conference would help developing nations to adapt to climate change, thus reducing its adverse impacts, and will encourage more clean technology projects in Africa and other poorer regions.

"The conference gave added momentum to discussions on future global action to combat climate change which began last May," said the EC.

According to the EC, the 166 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed on a comprehensive work plan for their talks on further commitments by developed countries for the period after 2012, when the Protocol's current emission targets expire.

The conference carried out a first review of the Protocol and agreed to undertake a second review in 2008 as strongly requested by the EU.

"The work plan agreed here is an important step towards defining the shape of future global action, but the international community needs to step up efforts to complete the process as soon as possible," said Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for Environment.

Source: Xinhua