EU ‘may propose Kyoto Protocol extension’

EurActiv reported government negotiators were suggesting that the EU could propose a lifeline for the beleaguered Kyoto Protocol and secure the future of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) beyond 2012.

EU officials would discuss whether to back an extension to the climate treaty in the early autumn of 2011, on the condition that it expired in 2018 and was replaced with a deal that caps all major nations' emissions.

If all 27 EU Member States agreed to this line, the EU could announce this stance at UN climate talks in South Africa in November 2011, as part of an attempt to overcome the four-year impasse over Kyoto's future.

• Primary Source

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Homepage http://unfccc.int/2860.php

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