You Don't Kill the Only Policy, You Improve!

Japan's Motion to Kill Kyoto Protocol a 'Slap in the Face,' Advocates Say

Other rich states, most notably Russia and Canada, oppose extending the Kyoto treaty beyond 2012

Dec 2, 2010 - Advocates for poor nations angrily assailed Japan at the Cancun climate talks on Wednesday for planning to kill off the Kyoto Protocol, a move they say might dent chances of progress in the two-week talks.

"It was really a slap in the face because all of the developing countries are totally united to the fact that the Kyoto Protocol must continue," Lim Li Lin of the Third World Network, a nonprofit based in Malaysia, told SolveClimate News.

Japan announced that it will oppose extension of the Kyoto pact beyond 2012, the strongest articulation of its position ever made. Instead, it will fight for a new global deal to cover all nations based on the Copenhagen Accord, in line with U.S. policy in Cancun.

Hideki Minamikawa, Japan's vice minister for global environmental affairs, told reporters covering the Nov. 29 to Dec. 10 talks late Wednesday that "it does not make sense" to continue Kyoto because it "covers only about 27 percent of global CO2 emissons."

For many, the announcement was an unwelcome surprise. {read rest}