This is not where we wanted to be at the end of the meeting, I assure you. It certainly isn’t where we need to be in order to prevent islands from going under and other unimaginable impacts.Kieren Keke, Foreign Minister of Nauru • Speaking on the agreement at a UN conference in Qatar today to extend provisions of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change through 2020. This may sound hopeful on its face, but the agreement is far short of of the level of coordination needed to impact the changing climate, as it only covers about 15% of global emissions. Canada, Russia, New Zealand, and Japan (where, notably, Kyoto is located) all opted out of the deal. A major sticking point in the negotiations — how new emissions standards would impact wealthy, industrialized nations versus developing ones, and securing funding from the richer states to help the poorer meet those marks. The conference reaffirmed a pledge to come to a global treaty by 2015, a lofty goal considering the competing interests involved, and also not a delay anybody like the minister quoted above wants to consider. For tiny islands like Nauru or Kiribati, the climate change debate isn’t just academic. source
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