Only governments, working together, can mobilize the human ingenuity, innovation and initiative to set free the full power of societies, science, and business to meet the climate challenge, said Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary as briefing the press about the status of the UN climate change process.

"Governments must set full sail ahead to capture the powerful winds of change that humanity is wanting to release," she added.

"In Cancun, governments can set those sails higher. They can capture pledges they have made and begin to implement them fully appreciating that what is agreed may not be at the level which science demands but that it is the next essential step in the right direction."

Governments have both the opportunity and responsibility to build on past efforts in five key areas:

Helping poor countries to take concrete action

Second, governments seem on track to agree to a comprehensive set of ways and means to allow developing countries to take concrete climate action.

This includes adapting to climate change, limiting emissions growth; getting adequate finance; boosting use of technology; promoting sustainable forestry; and building up the skills and capacity to do all this.

All developing countries need help to take these actions, but the poorest and most vulnerable among them need the support most urgently.

Turning pledges of funding into reality

Third, industrialized nations can turn their pledges of funding into reality.

Last year, they promised USD30 billion in fast-track financing for developing country adaptation and mitigation efforts through 2012.

Developing nations see the transparent and real allocation of this money as a critical signal that industrialized nations are committed to progress in the broader negotiations.

Industrialized countries also pledged to find ways and means to raise 100 billion dollars a year by the year 2020. The UN Secretary-General Advisory Group on Finance is looking at possible sources of this funding and will report to governments at the end of October.

Measuring, reporting and verifying

Fourth, countries want to see that what they agree with each other is measured, reported and verified in a transparent and accountable way.

It is called MRV in the negotiations and it is not complex. Countries simply want to know that what they see is what they get. Progress here will be a gauge that countries are moving to common ground.

Pledges to be captured in a binding manner

Fifth, and last, governments agree that pledges need to be captured in a binding manner. But they still need to work out how to do that.

Binding agreements among governments can be on an international level, on a national level, or can be based on compliance with rules and regulations. They could also involve a mix of all three, and governments are currently considering them all.

"It is important to note that the combination of the last two elements, accountability and binding action, is essential for societies, science, and business to be confident that clean, green strategies are being pursued and will be rewarded globally, as well as locally," she emphasized.

Avoiding the worst requires energy revolution

The challenge governments face is not a small one. What is at stake here is the long term, sustainable future of humanity.

We know the milestones science has set by when and by how much emissions must drop to have a chance of avoiding the worst. It requires nothing less than an energy revolution both in production and consumption.

A transformation like this is built by grasping the politically possible at every step turning countless, diverse and sometimes conflicting interests into the common good.

Governments have been building common ground since the UNFCCC began in Rio in 1992, and then, consecutively, in Berlin, Kyoto, Marrakesh, Bali, yes! Copenhagen and now Cancun.

"The idea that a single magic, global agreement could solve all climate issues does not do justice to the crucial steps already achieved and, most importantly, dangerously ignores the need to keep innovating."

"In Cancun, governments can harness the politically possible in order to achieve concrete and unmistakable progress," Ms Figueres concluded.