Home / NEWS / Business / Developed nations want to kill Kyoto Protocol: CSE

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has accused developed nations of trying to kill the Kyoto Protocol. CSE’s climate team attended and closely followed the Bangkok deliberations which, it says, have left most problems unresolved.
“Bangkok was supposed to be a major milestone in the run-up to Copenhagen, but at the end of it, existing problems have remained. What’s worse, new ones have emerged,” says Kushal P S Yadav, head of CSE’s climate team.
The Bangkok Climate Change Talks were held from September 28 till October 9, and revolved around the ninth session of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the seventh session of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action.
The 15th Conference of Parties scheduled to be held in Copenhagen from December 7 might fizzle out, going by the results of the recently concluded Bangkok climate meet – said a statement from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Advertisement

COMMENT Comment on this article

Following the US model, other developed countries have begun moving away from internationally binding emissions reduction targets towards having domestic legislations and targets which can eventually be enshrined into a new treaty. Said Yadav: “This is nothing but slow dismantling of an internationally binding agreement. National targets cannot be treated at the same level as commitments made under the Kyoto Protocol. This is evident from the current commitments made by a few developed countries and blocks, which remain well below the levels which science says are required.”
According to Yadav, “the move by developed countries to dump the existing processes and instruments is being seen as an attempt to weaken the existing levels of commitments and obligations for Annex I nations”.
Addressing a meeting at Bangkok, Shyam Saran, the Indian prime minister’s special envoy on climate change, said categorically: “The Annex I countries are coming down to much lower level of obligations. We have said ‘no’ to this. We will not sign any such deal.”
Said Sunita Narain, director, CSE and a member of the prime minister’s committee on climate change: “We strongly condemn this attempt to junk the Kyoto Protocol and move the goal-posts.”

---