Kyoto Protocol Faces Gap After Emissions Goals End, UN Says

The world’s only treaty that caps greenhouse-gas emissions will face a gap in enforcement after 2012 because its targets expire and an extension can’t be approved in time, the top United Nations climate official said.

Japan, Russia and Canada have said they won’t take part in a so-called second-commitment period under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Even if they sign up to new goals at talks in December in Durban, South Africa, the decision will require an amendment of the treaty and ratification by governments around the world, the UN’s Christiana Figueres said today in Bonn.