"There is a growing realisation that resolving the future of the Kyoto Protocol is an essential task this year and will require high-level political guidance," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the 194-nation UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"By Durban, governments need to come forward with options that will be acceptable to all parties," she told journalists, referring to the UNFCCC's annual gathering, taking place in November 28-December 9 in Durban, South Africa.
Kyoto is the only international agreement with binding targets for curbing greenhouse gases.
But its future is uncertain because China and the United States, the world's No. 1 and No. 2 polluters, are not subject to its constraints.
A first commitment period covering nearly 40 industrialised countries - except for Washington, which refuses to ratify Kyoto - expires at the end of 2012.
Japan, Canada and Russia have said they will not sign up for a new round of carbon-cutting vows.
The European Union (EU) says it will only do so if other nations - including emerging giants such as China and India, which do not have binding targets - beef up efforts in a parallel negotiating arena. Read the full report here.
Source: by Marlowe Hood, (AFP), Bonn.
