Delegates extend Kyoto protocol, put off hard choices

Delegates to United Nations climate talks in Doha agreed Saturday to extend the Kyoto Protocol, a pact that aims to curb greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized nations but will cover only about 15 percent of the world’s carbon output.

The outcome of the two-week negotiations, which nearly collapsed in their final hours in a dispute over how to compensate poor countries for the losses they will suffer as the result of climate change, underscored the challenge policymakers face in confronting global warming. The hard decisions were put off, including how much major developing countries such as China and India will commit to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions and to what extent the richest nations will assist vulnerable ones over the next decade.

European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard hailed the fact that nearly 200 countries agreed on a framework for negotiating a pact over the next three years, which will take effect in 2020.

“It was not an easy and comfortable ride,” she said in a statement. “But we have managed to cross the bridge. Very intense negotiations lie ahead of us. What we need now is more ambition and more speed.”

Nauru’s minister of foreign affairs, Kieren Keke, who chairs the Alliance of Small Island States, lambasted some of his fellow delegates. “Much, much more is needed if we are to save this process from being simply a process for the sake of process; a process that simply provides for talk and no action; a process that locks in the death of our nations, our people, and our children,” said Keke.

Fred Boltz, senior vice president for international policy at the advocacy group Conservation International, said in a statement, “Nobody expected a major breakthrough to happen at this summit, but there has been virtually no meaningful progress on any important issue.”

While the European Union agreed to conduct another set of emissions cuts between 2013 and 2020 under the Kyoto Protocol, several nations, including Canada, Japan, Russia and New Zealand, declined to join them.

Both academics and environmentalists described the extension of Kyoto as insufficient in terms of reducing the world’s growing carbon emissions, which could raise global temperatures by as much as 7.2 degrees by 2100, according to several studies.

Rebecca Lefton, an international climate policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, said the talks’ modest result meant countries would have to work in the near term to cut emissions in other ways, such as curbing methane, black carbon and other contributors to climate change.

One of the contentious points in the talks was how much rich countries would give poor ones to cope with climate change: A handful of countries, primarily European ones, have pledged between $5 billion and $6 billion over the next three years.

Developing countries pushed for the establishment of a “loss and damage” fund that would compensate them for the impact of extreme weather events. The United States resisted this idea, and in the end delegates called for “institutional arrangements, such as an international mechanism” to address the issue.

Alden Meyer of the advocacy group Union of Concerned Scientists said representatives from some vulnerable nations were so upset about the dispute that they emerged from a meeting early Saturday “on the verge of tears. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

This year’s talks did not provide as much of a public spectacle as earlier ones, largely because protesters were not allowed in the conference center in Qatar.

“No people in polar bear suits, no passionate youth doing skits, no melting ice sculptures,” wrote Environmental Defense Fund’s international climate program director Jennifer Haverkamp in an e-mail. “Without that infusion of energy — not to mention accountability — there just wasn’t the usual level of urgency.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood blocks Highway 99 south

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett to welcome new CEO

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.