UN climate boss: 'Good compromise' beats no deal on warming

"No deal was the worst possible result there. Nobody wins," Patricia Espinosa, the United Nations' climate secretary, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday. Nearly 200 nations have signed on to what is now being called the Glasgow Climate Pact.

"No deal was the worst possible result there. Nobody wins," Espinosa said in an interview with The Associated Press Sunday, about 15 hours after nearly 200 nations agreed on what is now being called the Glasgow Climate Pact.

The world got a climate deal that outside experts said showed progress, but not success. It didn't achieve any of the three UN goals: Pledges that would cut world carbon dioxide emissions by about half, US$100 billion in yearly climate aid from rich countries to poor ones and half that money going to help the developing world adapt to the harms of a warming world.

Even more disappointing, a big world economy -- India -- which is already seeing droughts and extreme heat from global warming was the nation that watered down the final Glasgow deal.

"I am satisfied," Espinosa said. "I think this is a very positive result in the sense that it gives us a very clear guidance on what we need to do in the coming years."