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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Cry to end Kyoto Protocol rises in Cancun by Jayanta Basu

Cry to end Kyoto Protocol rises in Cancun by Jayanta Basu

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published Published on Dec 6, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 6, 2010


A death threat to a historic 13-year-old international treaty on climate change that surfaced last year appears to have intensified and may stall progress at the UN climate change talks here in this scenic Mexican city.

Several industrialised countries are opposing the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty that had set legally binding targets only on industrialised countries for the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases up to the year 2012.

The high-level ministerial segment of the talks opened today amid concerns that negotiations are veering away from efforts to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

The alternative may be a plan under which nations — industrialised countries and large emitters among developing countries such as China and India — would pledge emissions cuts and allow international scrutiny of these efforts.

“Japan has already opposed continuation of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012, and now Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are also opposing it,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.

India is among other developing countries arguing for extension of the treaty beyond 2012. India’s lead negotiator and environment secretary Vijay Sharma has said that an extension of the protocol is “core to all future climate talks”.

The protocol is the only legally binding instrument that has asked 37 industrialised countries to cut emissions by at least 5 per cent before 2012 from their emissions levels in 1990. Few countries have met the targets.

In previous climate change talks, developing countries had agreed to take voluntary actions to curb the growth of their greenhouse gas emissions, on condition that industrialised countries support them with climate-friendly technology and finance.

But Ramesh today expressed concern that the industrialised countries have failed miserably on their commitment made last year for fast-track funding to support poor and vulnerable countries.

“It can prove to be another make or break issue,” Ramesh said. “There must be $10 billion in fast-track finance by mid-2011. I have told the American delegation yesterday about it as United States has only contributed $1.8 billion.”

In Copenhagen, the developed countries had agreed to give $30 billion as “fast-track” financial support to small and vulnerable countries to counter climate change by 2012 but even one-fourth of the promised amount has not been given in 2010.

US negotiators in turn have been pressing for a ‘balanced agreement’ which is being interpreted as a proposal to bury the Kyoto pact and to get China and India to agree to major emission curbs.

But environmental analysts tracking the talks say the best that can be expected to emerge from the talks is some agreement over technology transfer, financial issues and adaptation to climate change.

“Many developed countries, including the US, are pushing for an understanding over the technology transfer, financial issues and adaptation by effectively putting Kyoto Protocol on the backburner — and India and China appear to be warming up to this,” said Chandra Bhusan, deputy director of the Centre for Science and Environment.

Ramesh has also not cancelled out the possibility. “There may be a Cancun Conclusion, a ministerial declaration, or even a decision by all the parties (at the conference),” he told The Telegraph.


The Telegraph, 7 December, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101207/jsp/nation/story_13268584.jsp


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