Nairobi Climate Meeting Concludes

More than 180 nations at the United Nations climate-change conference recently completed in Nairobi made only moderate progress in negotiations toward future cuts in greenhouse gases. They decided to conduct a review during 2008 of the effectiveness of the Kyoto protocol and pledged that the review will not consider new mandatory cutbacks on greenhouse gases from developing countries. The parties also acknowledged that emissions eventually would have to be cut to well below half of the 2000 levels to avoid dangerous consequences of climate change. In addition, the nations agreed to look into better financial systems for funding Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects and into ways of expanding their use around the world. Under CDM, developed countries fund emissions reduction projects in developing nations and use the reductions to help meet their own targets under the Kyoto protocol. The next round of negotiations under the Kyoto protocol will be held in Bonn, Germany, in May 2007.