Isra-Mart srl:Delbeke: EU must reassess commitment to post-2012 Kyoto Protocol

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Isra-Mart srl news:

One of the EU's top climate change officials is calling for the Bloc to reconsider its support for an extension of the Kyoto Protocol when the current commitment period expires in 2012, according to reports from news agency Bloomberg.

Jos Delbeke, director general for climate at the European Commission, reportedly told a meeting in Brussels today that the EU may require a "reflection period" before finalising its position on the future of the Kyoto Agreement.

The status of the Kyoto Protocol post-2012 proved the main stumbling block at last month's UN climate summit in Cancun, with developing countries insisting a second commitment period must be agreed and Japan and Russia stating unequivocally that they would not sign up to an extension of the international agreement.

The EU said it would agree to a second commitment period so long as all other countries signed up to a parallel treaty containing binding emissions targets – a position Delbeke said would now need to be reconsidered.

"The US has made it very clear they will never join the Kyoto Protocol treaty, and we have heard Japan, followed by Russia and other major players, have made clear they are not going to sign up for a second commitment period," Bloomberg quoted him as saying. "So for the EU, there is a very important question of how much we like the Kyoto Protocol, how much it's pointless to find ourselves alone under the protocol. We have to digest that."

Delbeke said the EU remained fully committed to reaching an international agreement to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, but his comments are still likely to anger some developing countries that regard the extension of the Kyoto Protocol for industrialised nations as critical to any agreement.