Aversion to a huge green pledge in Doha talks

Climate change talks in Doha reached in middle on 2^nd December. The main countries responsible for the huge amount of carbon emissions are avoiding to make any straight pledge to reduce the carbon emissions. Doha talks aims to extend the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 and implemented in 2005 for the period of 2008 to 2012. It binds 37 industrialized nations to reduce their carbon emission up to 5 per cent till 2020.  

China emits highest amount of the greenhouse gases mainly responsible for the climate change. US stands second in row, India third and Russia fourth. Kyoto Protocol would be no more a legally binding document after 31^st December 2012. Hence why there is a need to make another global pledge to save this world from further climate change by binding all the main emitters to further reduce their emissions.

In Doha conference most of the developed nations are avoiding to specify their emission limits and just talking about collective actions or stressing upon the need of long term agenda. Global climate experts doubt the sincerity of the purpose at Doha where green representatives of all the developed and developing nations have been joining their heads since November 26, 2012 to come to a conclusion. Obviously main objective is to give an extension to the Kyoto Protocol but the ultimate objective is to further enhance the pledge for the carbon reduction.

The main hurdles observed so far during the talks at Doha to reinvigorate the Kyoto Protocol are given below:

• US - despite President Obama’s prior pledge to stay ahead for climate change efforts in second term - is pressing the need of long-term agreement of more than five years. It shows countries want their progress should be reviewed not after five years but more than that period.  
• Canada, Japan and New Zealand are also avoiding to join the forces to revise the Kyoto pledge and also favoring a green promise with the term of more than five years.
• EU countries and BASIC states (Brazil, India, Brazil and South Africa) are proposing an eight year agreement to conclude it in 2020 that is the final term of the earlier pledge made in the city of Japan.
• There is lack of consensus between all the delegates on enhancing the emission targets.

Analysts observed that some countries are trying to drag the talks for one year to get it finalized at the end of 2013. In this way they would get some more years to develop the rules for the implementation of the Doha agreement. Ultimately all countries would be nearing the year 2020 that is the end period of the protocol. In this way they would have a sound excuse for their inability to meet the targets because of the shortage of the time to implement the climate change agreement done in Doha.