The current round of UN climate talks began on Tuesday in Bangkok, Thailand. These are the latest negotiations since the Cancun sessions in December last year. While the Cancun talks produced a raft of smaller agreements on clean technology and new climate funds, they sidestepped bigger questions on the fate of the Kyoto Protocol post-2012.
The Bangkok talks are off to a tumultuous start, with developing nations putting heavy pressure on the industrialised economic powers to extend the current emissions target regime until at least 2013. The current phase of the Kyoto Protocol – the world’s primary emissions target agreement – is due to expire next year.
Pacific island nations such as Tuvalu, which would face catastrophic disaster in the event of rising sea levels, are leading the call for an extension of Kyoto. There are fears that if the current agreement lapses without a clear path forward, gaps in international consensus may emerge, making it increasingly difficult to orchestrate a new global emissions target in the future.
At Envirosafe Solutions we believe passionately in the need to preserve our global environment. We will be watching the UN climate talks with great interest, in the hope that all nations can work together to combat climate change.
