UN Chief Hopes Doha Climate Change Conference Will Extend Kyoto Protocol

Kuwait, December 02 (QNA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope that the two-week UN Climate Change Conference being held in Doha, Qatar, will extend the Kyoto Protocol when its first commitment period expires at the end of this year. "I would expect, through the leadership demonstrated by the Qatari Government, first, that the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol be extended," the UN Chief told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) in an interview before heading to Doha, to attend the opening of the High-Level segment of the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on December 4. The second period is to begin on January 1, 2013. Its proposed duration varies. While developed countries want it to last eight years, developing smaller nations prefer five years only, in order to put time pressure on the industrialized countries. Most participants at the Conference, which was meant to limit global warming, would also like the extension of the 1997 Protocol which set binding obligations on the industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020. The Doha Conference, November 26 - December 7, is the first in a Gulf country and the second in the Arab World. The first meeting was held in Morocco. Thousands of government representatives, international organizations, and civil society members representing over 190 countries are attending the Conference. Ban's other expectations at the Conference are "Second, all these agreed international institutions like Green Climate Fund and climate technological Center and Networks should be established at Doha, and third, and most importantly, we should discuss and formulate how we can mobilize the necessary funding." "With the decision in Copenhagen in 2009, USD 30 billion have been mobilized by the end of this year," he explained. "Then we have to mobilize USD 100 billion dollars annually by 2020." "Those are the three expectations which I would like to achieve in Doha," he stressed. He indicated that "I am going to convene a brain-storming session with Finance Ministers and finance-related delegates on how we can work to mobilize the necessary Climate Change financing issues." (QNA)