Last minute Durban deal reached – extends life of Kyoto protocol

Kyoto has become a zombie, coming to life after being dead…

Excerpts from Yahoo News

(AP) — A U.N. climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement Sunday on a complex and far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight against climate change for the coming decades.

The 194-party conference agreed to start negotiations on a new accord that would put all countries under the same legal regime enforcing commitments to control greenhouse gases. It would take effect by 2020 at the latest.

The deal also set up the bodies that will collect, govern and distribute tens of billions of dollars a year for poor countries. Other documents in the package lay out rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and scores of technical issues.

Currently, only industrial countries have legally binding emissions targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Those commitments expire next year, but they will be extended for another five years under the accord adopted Sunday — a key demand by developing countries seeking to preserve the only existing treaty regulating carbon emissions.

“This is a very significant package. None of us likes everything in it. Believe me, there is plenty the United States is not thrilled about,” said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern. But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected, he told the delegates.

The deal’s language left some analysts warning that the wording left huge loopholes for countries to avoid tying their emissions to legal constraints, and noted that there was no mention of penalties. “They haven’t reached a real deal,” said Samantha Smith, of WWF International. “They watered things down so everyone could get on board.”

The package gave new life to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, whose carbon emissions targets expire next year and apply only to industrial countries. A separate document obliges major developing nations like China and India, excluded under Kyoto, to accept legally binding emissions targets in the future.

Together, the two documents overhaul a system designed 20 years ago that divide the world into a handful of wealthy countries facing legal obligations to reduce emissions, and the rest of the world which could undertake voluntary efforts to control carbon.

full story at: Yahoo News

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Douglas DC
December 10, 2011 8:42 pm

Kicking the can….

Editor
December 10, 2011 8:42 pm

Anthony, its Durban, not Durbal…

December 10, 2011 8:43 pm

Love this line: “But the package captured important advances that would be undone if it is rejected”

J. Felton
December 10, 2011 8:46 pm

As a Canadian, I still have hope for Canada to pull out of this ridiculous scheme…

Editor
December 10, 2011 8:46 pm

FYI: The US never ratified Kyoto, and nobody should expect us to ratify Durban either.

vigilantfish
December 10, 2011 8:48 pm

I was hoping the “Durbal’ typo meant the deal was a joke Well, it is, anyway, but for some reason I’m not laughing. Guess this means a bunch of bureaucrats will continue to wine (whine), dine and fly around to exotic locations on our accounts. They’re holding onto their jobs for a while longer.

December 10, 2011 8:52 pm

So what happens if we don’t ever pass a budget and send money?
I understand the UN can’t levy and collect taxes.

Mike Bromley the Kurd
December 10, 2011 8:53 pm

More madness. Not about science in any way, and using obsolete and largely disproven tripe as a basis for action. Basically any poor country can cry foul during a storm, using any weather event to ‘prove’ culpability by the wicked West.

Leon Brozyna
December 10, 2011 8:55 pm

COP18, COP19, COP20 … and on and on … so many exotic locales to visit … so many billions of dollars to hand over to the UN.

John West
December 10, 2011 8:59 pm

Can’t somebody come up with some other “cause” for these people to work on (perhaps one that wouldn’t involve ceasing fossil fuel use), so they can let this one go?
Maybe Santa could use some help?

December 10, 2011 9:00 pm

“The good news is we avoided a train wreck,” said Alden Meyer, recalling predictions a few days ago of a likely failure. “The bad news is that we did very little here to affect the emissions curve.”
– Yahoo News
So does this mean the deal is “toothless”? A hollow victory to save face?

Madman2001
December 10, 2011 9:01 pm

From what I read, the delegates agreed to negotiate a new agreement no later than 2015. It sounds like they agreed to agree later.

Robmax
December 10, 2011 9:05 pm

Kent is going to have some explaining to do since he said they wouldn’t on again.

Claude Harvey
December 10, 2011 9:06 pm

This means the individual leaches who participated in this conference will remain dining at the public trough indefinitely. That’s what I would call a VERY successful conference in the eyes of the participants. Let the good times ROLL!

albertalad
December 10, 2011 9:08 pm

NO US agreement will EVER pass the Senate especially with an election year in the works. Those who do vote for that will get brutalized in any election. Thank GOD for the US senate! I can safely say – not one cent will be forthcoming from the US which will scuttle this agreement.

P. Solar
December 10, 2011 9:08 pm

So where’s the text ?
How does this resemble what Monckton posted yesterday?

Steve Koch
December 10, 2011 9:09 pm

It takes 67 votes in the senate to approve a treaty. That will never happen, just like it never happened with the Kyoto treaty.

Inversesquare
December 10, 2011 9:11 pm
December 10, 2011 9:17 pm

More wasted money on a meaningless program. Sounds like a good day’s work for bureaucrats.

Dave Worley
December 10, 2011 9:22 pm

Amazing how the MSM drools over these fools.

Carbon-based life form
December 10, 2011 9:28 pm

Theater of the absurd: “…broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive…” (Wiki)
Time to bring down the curtain.

rk
December 10, 2011 9:28 pm

Madness is right:
Sunday’s breakthrough capped 13 days of hectic negotiations that ran a day and a half over schedule, including two round-the-clock days that left negotiators bleary-eyed and stumbling with words. Delegates were seen nodding off in the final plenary session, despite the high drama, barely constrained emotions and uncertainty whether the talks would end in triumph or total collapse.
Yeah, that sounds like a great way to run the world /s
And this:
Coming after weeks of unsuccessful effort to resolve the issue, Nkoana-Mashabane gave Natarajan and European Commissioner Connie Hedegaard 10 minutes to find a solution, with hundreds of delegates milling around them.
They needed 50 minutes.
Wow! I’m impressed…these guys are sooooo bright that they only need 50 minutes to solve the world’s problems /s
Madness. But it looks like mostly a face-saving (expensive) exercise. China/India will never agree to legal binding emission controls….and the EU would have enough worries one would think

December 10, 2011 9:34 pm

Oh, God…..Here we go again.
Why do people (sheeple) not realise when they are being sheared?
This will end in tears……..

Sydney Sider
December 10, 2011 9:34 pm

I thought something happened over there: In Sydney Australia, this very afternoon, the clear and sunny day went away and was replaced by thunderstorms in a matter of minutes, right around the time the negotiators in Durban agreed to a deal!
I guess COP17 was a success after all and has defeated climate change – ruining my weekend away from the computer. *sigh*

crosspatch
December 10, 2011 9:36 pm

The UN does not have force of law in the US. They are not elected, they are self-appointed. They are not a government, they are a diplomatic body. Diplomats do not carry the force of law. They are basically the political cronies of whichever despot is running their country, for the most part.

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