Bangkok (The Nation-Thailand/ANN) - The Kyoto Protocol - due to expire next year - legally binds industrialised nations to reduce greenhousegas emissions, and their support must continue, Thailand's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said yesterday.
"We need to extend the enforcement of the Kyoto Protocol until we have a new mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases," he said.
Suwit made his remarks in a speech to the UN Climate Change Conference Bangkok 2011 - the first formal round of climatechange negotiations this year. More than 2,500 scientists, environmental activists and lobbyists from 192 countries are attending.
"We support extension of the Kyoto Protocol because we have no confidence in rich nations signing up for a second commitment period," he said.
The second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol sets binding greenhousegas emission targets on rich nations from 2013 to 2018.
The uncertainty of industrialised nations supporting the second commitment will affect the mechanism to reduce emissions, Suwit said.
To date, only Japan and Russia are cool towards extending the Kyoto Protocol - while the Group of 77 developing countries and China have expressed strong support for its extension.
"If the Kyoto Protocol expires, industrialised nations will no longer take responsibility for reducing greenhousegas emissions," the source said.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the world should aim to reduce greenhousegas emissions by 30 per cent since it was established in 1997.
Suwit also called for rich nations to support financial resources and technology transfer to developing nations to fight global warming - but, the source said, so far there had been no progress from developed nations in helping developing countries.
Representatives from Japan have insisted strongly that their country will not support an extension of the Kyoto Protocol. However, they said it would continue its role in tackling climate change and make all possible contributions.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said financial support and technology transfers from rich nations to developing countries were being discussed in the meeting, together with the extension of the protocol.
Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap), said climate change was no longer a distant threat. It was a reality and a sign of what lies ahead.
Disasters related to weather and climate are occurring in the AsiaPacific with increasing frequency. The human toll is immense - more than any other region. In fact, Asia has accounted for 80 per cent of the world's deaths caused by natural disaster in the past decade.
"Action on climate change therefore cannot wait, and people are calling for action now.
We need a new sense of urgency and responsibility," she said. "It is our responsibility to not only protect our people and our economy today, but also to prepare for future economies.
We must be responsible in how we use the Earth's resources. The gifts which we take for granted are not guaranteed."
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