Doha climate talks throw lifeline to Kyoto Protocol

Desdemona Despair

• Talks agree eight-year extension to protocol
• Puts off decision on increasing aid to 2013
• No major emissions goals have been set at Doha talks

By Alister Doyle and Barbara Lewis
8 December 2012

DOHA, 8 December 2012 (Reuters) – Almost 200 nations extended on Saturday a weakened U.N. plan for fighting global warming until 2020, averting a new setback to two decades of U.N. efforts that have failed to halt rising world greenhouse gas emissions.

The eight-year extension of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 keeps it alive as the sole legally binding plan for combating global warming. But it was sapped by the withdrawal of Russia, Japan and Canada, so its signatories now account for only 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions.

“I thank you all for good will and hard work in moving the process forward,” conference president Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said as he banged down his gavel repeatedly on a package of decisions at the end of marathon talks.

But Moscow’s delegate Oleg Shamanov said that Russia, along with Belarus and Ukraine, opposed the decision to extend the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Russia wanted less stringent limits on unused carbon emissions permits, known as hot air.

A package of decisions, known as the Doha Climate Gateway, would also postpone until 2013 a dispute over demands from developing nations for more cash to help them cope with global warming.

All sides say the Doha decisions fell far short of recommendations by scientists for tougher action to try to avert more heatwaves, sandstorms, floods, droughts, and rising sea levels.

The draft deal would extend the Kyoto Protocol for eight years. It had obliged about 35 industrialised nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during the period from 2008 to 2012. […]

Doha climate talks throw lifeline to Kyoto Protocol