Negotiations to extend the 2012 commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol have made substantial progress in the first week of the COP16/CMP6 climate conference in Cancun, said delegates at an informal plenary session on Saturday.

John Ashe, who chairs the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), said that parties were very close to reaching a compromise on the world’s only internationally-binding treaty that commits the majority of developing countries to making cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Reduction targets set for the 37 Annex I parties will expire in the next two years if nations to not establish a second deadline.

“There has been substantial progress on the themes that we’re studying in this group, which includes questions on the (protocol’s) year of reference, the duration period of the commitments, etc.,” Ashe said at the session.

Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, said that she was confident an agreement on the Kyoto Protocol could be reached at the Cancun conference, which ends Dec. 10.

“We don’t have it in our hands right now, but it is possible to achieve it. This is important for not only the future of the climate change scheme, but also in general the future of multilateralism and the United Nations that transcends this specific topic of climate change.”

Keywords
2012, commitment period, kyoto protocol, cop16, cmp6, climate change, climate conference, cancun, john ashe, ad hoc working group on further commitments for annex i parties under the kyoto protocol