Working out a treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 international treaty intended to curb greenhouse gas emissions, is a big item on the global diplomatic agenda for 2010. But currently the momentum to get negotiations moving is not very strong.
The 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference (or COP15), held in Copenhagen in December, failed to conclude a new treaty, although leaders of some 120 countries went to the trouble of coming to the conference and joining the talks. Instead, COP15 only came up with an agreement, known as the Copenhagen Accord, which urges — but does not require — deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by major polluters and provides billions of dollars in aid to poor countries, to help mitigate the impact of climate change and also enable them to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.
The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Under that treaty, developed countries are obliged to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. However, since the United States, a big polluter, withdrew from the treaty under the Bush administration, it currently has no obligation to reduce emissions.