In Doha, developing nations call on countries to commit to emission reductions, in bid to protect Kyoto Protocol

In Doha, Qatar nations are nearing the end of the first week of UN-backed climate change talks. One of the central goals of the negotiations is to put in place legally-binding commitments for greenhouse gas emissions in order to continue the Kyoto Protocol; the first commitment period expires the end of this year. Speaking in Doha today, Pa Ousman of Gambia, who chairs the group of Least Developed Countries, said he was urging countries to agree to a five-year period of emission cuts for the Kyoto Protocol, or KP. So far, the world’s richest nations, including the US, have resisted making such a pledge. “That you want to kill the tree but would be interested in the fruits. We don’t understand how one can kill a tree and still claim to get the fruits. So that is fundamental to us and we think it would not be an incentive for parties who are not going to be party to a second commitment period of the KP to benefit from the flexible mechanisms.” On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said the first decade of this century has been the warmest on record and environmentalists and civil society groups cite extreme weather events this year as signs of an urgent need to combat climate change. For more on the UN talks, we’re joined by Meena Raman, climate negotiations expert with the Third World Network.