Countries urged to deliver on climate change promises
The 25 developing countries attending the 23rd Conference of Parties (COP23) in Bonn, Germany, are pushing developed countries to deliver on their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, three years before its period expires in 2020.
Amendments made to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in Doha (Qatar) in December 2012 extended the mandate of developed countries to take targeted cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 and beyond.
The earlier mandate was to make the emission cuts between 2005 and 2012, which up to now has not been fulfilled.
The Department of Environmental Affairs’ chief environmental officer, who negotiates for Malawi and least developed countries (LDCs), Evans Njewa, said it is important for developed countries to honour their obligations and commitments in the convention.
As a party to the Kyoto Protocol, Malawi ratified the Doha Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol in June 2017, although the country’s carbon emissions are insignificant, at 0.07 percent.
Said Njewa: “Without achieving this goal, the planet earth, its people and communities will continue facing adverse effects [of climate change].
“It is important, therefore, that parties should ratify the Doha Amendments to meet the pre-2020 ambition.”
The Kyoto Protocol seeks to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with climate systems to well below two degrees Celsius.
The protocol is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which commits its parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
