Environment ministers at UN climate talks agreed tonight to a review in 2008 of the UN's Kyoto Protocol that could pave the way to expand the scheme for fighting global warming beyond 2012. But some delegates criticised a lack of firm action on global warming.
After two weeks of talks in Nairobi, about 70 ministers said they would review the protocol, in what could be a prelude to widening the pact by 35 rich nations to include outsiders such as China and India.
Thirty-five industrial states bound by Kyoto's caps on greenhouse gases hope that a review of Kyoto might help widen the pact to outsiders after Kyoto's first period runs out in 2012.
Ministers agreed on some new ways to help Africa but they remained deadlocked on two issues - a review of how effectively Kyoto is working and a proposal by Russia to allow new nations to sign up.
Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Secretariat, dismissed environmentalists' complaints that the 6,000 bureaucrats at the talks had achieved too little to help the poor amid UN projections of more droughts, heatwaves, famines and rising seas.
"I think the conference has made very significant progress for developing countries," Mr de Boer said, pointing to incentives to promote clean energy such as solar or wind power under a scheme that could channel $100 billion to poor nations by 2012.
But Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said the agreement was insufficient. "It is not enough what we reached in the conference. Urgent action is necessary," he said.
Heads of state must instil "a new political momentum" into climate diplomacy next year, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who views climate as a priority, leads the G8 group of industrial nations, Mr Ganriel added.
Under the key agreement here, future meetings would review the workings of the Kyoto Protocol by 2008 with an eye toward setting new quotas on carbon dioxide and other emissions after Kyoto expires in 2012.
He also said the talks had set principles for a fund meant to help developing nations adapt to climate change. The fund is expected to grow sharply but is now worth just $3 million - less than the $4 million cost of staging the Nairobi talks.
A draft proposal by the chair of the meeting today said commitments under Kyoto, obliging rich nations to cut emissions to 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, "are not adequate" to fight climate change and proposes a full review in 2008.
Kyoto nations account for just 30 per cent of emissions of greenhouse gases and want a more global deal.