EU open to another period of Kyoto Protocol: officials

Europe was willing to commit to a second period of the Kyoto Protocol but it had to be a balanced deal, European Union officials said here Friday.

Europe's greenhouse gas emissions only accounted for 12 percent of the global total, so it was seeking a balanced deal in UN climate change negotiations, European Union officials Peter Wittock and Artur Runge-Metzger told a press conference.

Some nations were using a shrill tone in order to emphasize certain points as UN climate talks progressed, Runge-Metzger said.

With ministers from more than 190 signatories to the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its supplementary document, the Kyoto Protocol, due to meet here on Tuesday next week, there was still room for negotiations to turn in a positive direction, he said.

The 16th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC is taking place here to seek ways to tackle global climate changes. The second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in one of the key issues being discussed during the talks as the Protocol's first commitment will expire in 2012.

Some countries, like Japan, Canada and Russia, have publicly said they will not sign any new agreements concerning the second commitment period.

Venezuela, representing the nations of the Boliviarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), said it would not sign any new agreements unless rich nations committed to a second period of the Kyoto Protocol.

The EU officials said the ALBA nations -- Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua, St. Vincent and Dominica -- were seeking to pressure fellow participants to concede.

The COP16 opened on Nov. 29 in this resort city on Mexico's Caribbean coast, to look for a binding global agreement on tackling global climate change. The conference will close on Dec. 10.

Source: Xinhua