EU: Stavros Dimas : 'Giving Kyoto a Future'

In a statement to mark the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said: "Climate change poses a vital threat to the future stability and prosperity of our societies. The Kyoto Protocol's first year in force has seen important progress towards addressing this major challenge. In particular, the Montreal world climate change conference in December finalised and strengthened the rulebook for implementing Kyoto and, even more importantly, backed the EU's view that the time has come to start discussing future global action. The battle against climate change is winnable but with the Earth's temperature continuing to warm rapidly - NASA says 2005 was the hottest year on record - farther-reaching measures will be needed after the Kyoto targets expire in 2012. Building on the success of Kyoto, the international community must seize the opportunity of the talks starting this spring to create a global architecture that will deliver the deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions necessary to keep climate change within tolerable limits. The post-2012 arrangements need the participation of all major emitters while taking full account of the development needs of less developed countries. The EU is showing the way forward in addressing climate change with practical measures such as our emissions trading scheme and contributions such as the Commission's February 2005 paper on the principles that should underpin the future climate regime, which proved to be so influential in Montreal and other fora. We are determined to continue exercising this leadership to secure a successful outcome of the forthcoming talks."

Source: EU: Stavros Dimas : 'Giving Kyoto a Future'
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Link: What is the Kyoto Protocol?


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