The ongoing meeting of world's major economies on climate change in Honolulu, Hawaii, is intended to build on guidelines forged last month at a UN summit in Bali, Indonesia, for reaching a treaty by the end of 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which will expire at the end of 2012.
The Kyoto Protocol is the world's first treaty to address global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Although the treaty only came into force on Feb. 16, 2005, post-Kyoto negotiations on working out a new treaty began in earnest under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
June 2007: G8 summit
Leaders at the 33rd G8 summit issued a non-binding communique announcing that the G8 nations would "aim to at least halve globalCO2 emissions by 2050".
The details enabling this to be achieved would be negotiated byenvironment ministers within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major emerging economies.
July 2007: UN General Assembly plenary debate
As part of the schedule leading up to the September UN High-Level-Event, on July 31 the United Nations General Assembly opened its first-ever plenary session devoted exclusively to climate change, which also included prominent scientists and business leaders.
August 2007: Vienna Climate Change Talks and Agreement
A round of climate change talks under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded in Austria on Aug. 31, 2007, with an agreement on key elements for an effective international response to climate change.
September 2007: United Nations High-Level-Event
Alongside the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon held informal high-level discussions on the post-Kyoto treaty on Sept. 24, 2007.
September 2007: first major economies meeting (MEM)
Representatives of the United Nations, major industrialized and developing countries were invited by the U.S. President George W. Bush to the MEM in Washington on Sept. 27 and 28.
December 2007: United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
The meeting was attended by representatives from over 180 countries, together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations.
Participants agreed on "Bali roadmap", which provide guidelines to reach a treaty by the end of 2009 to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
January 2008: Hawaii MEM
The Bush administration is hosting an international conference of world's major economies in Honolulu, Hawaii Jan. 30-31, to address the issues related to climate change.
Although the Bush administration has repeatedly said the Hawaii meeting is simply to supplement the U.N. process, there are suspicions that it is intended to sidetrack the U.N. climate talks and push forward its own agenda on the issue, which the U.S. government denies.
It said the meeting is to advance the U.N. agenda and feed new ideas to climate change negotiation process under the U.N. framework.
Source: Xinhua
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