Poorer Nations End Walkout After Protesting Plans to Scrap Kyoto

A large bloc of developing nations called a halt to a half-day walkout at the climate summit on Monday, ending a protest over moves by the world’s industrialized nations to abandon the Kyoto climate protocol. The talks were suspended because of the action by the G-77 group of developing nations, which accused the world’s wealthy countries of wanting to do away with the Kyoto treaty as the basis of a new agreement. But Danish officials persuaded the G-77 nations to return after assuring them that the conference would seriously consider their demands for an extension of the Kyoto treaty. The U.S., the U.K, and other wealthy nations have said that the Kyoto protocols should be scrapped because they do not require powerful developing nations, such as China, to agree to binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. But the developing nations fear that any new treaty will not include stringent emissions cuts for the world’s largest historical emitters, such as the U.S. “The killing of the Kyoto Protocol, I can say, will mean the killing of Africa,” said Mama Konate, a member of Mali’s delegation at the talks. “Before accepting that, we should all die first.” Ed Miliband, Britain’s energy and climate change secretary, said the conference’s Danish hosts want to leave open the question of whether Kyoto would provide the basic framework of a new agreement, and whether a final treaty — to be completed next year — would exempt developing nations from firm emissions targets.
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