UN Admits for the First Time Interval Between Kyoto and a New Agreement

The president of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres, has taken on Tuesday (6) that there is probably a time interval between the end of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 and the beginning of a new climate deal. "Governments must face the fact that it is increasingly difficult to establish a new global deal and that we can stay for some time without there being any kind of international treaty on emissions of greenhouse gases," he said at a news Figueres press during the round of climate talks being held in Bangkok. The future of the Kyoto Protocol was one of the thorniest issues of the Climate Conference in Cancun (COP 16), when virtually no progress has been achieved. Figueres stressed that the negotiators in Bangkok should address fundamental issues in the Protocol so that there is a possibility that it can be extended or replaced at the next COP in late November in South Africa. All these questions about the future of the Protocol have tormented for months involved in carbon markets and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Without a climate treaty into force, these tools can collapse. Read More