Call for post-Kyoto climate deal

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Nairobi

David Miliband is calling for further greenhouse gas reductions

Environment Secretary David Miliband has called for a binding global deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions which goes beyond the Kyoto Protocol.

He said a new deal needs to include more countries than the Kyoto agreement, with richer nations leading the way.

But he said a deal will not be reached this week at the United Nations climate meeting being held in Nairobi.

Mr Miliband was speaking during a visit to rural communities in Kenya affected by two and a half years of drought.

His comments came a day in advance of the Queen's Speech which will contain new legislation on climate.

Renewed commitment

Britain's official position has long been that another global deal, like the Kyoto Protocol but covering more countries and demanding deeper cuts in emissions, is needed when the current protocol targets expire in 2012.

But remarks made by Tony Blair a year ago, when he appeared to suggest such a deal was impossible, caused many to question the government's commitment.

Now Mr Miliband has reasserted the importance of an agreement beyond Kyoto.

"We must have a global deal," he said. "We won't get one this week, but it is absolutely essential that we have a comprehensive deal to curb and reduce carbon emissions across the world with every country playing its part."

Mr Miliband's view that an agreement will not emerge at these UN negotiations is shared by many observers.

But some argue that a clear timetable for negotiating the deal must emerge this week, to allow enough time for its completion before 2012.

The focus at these talks is largely on helping poorer countries adapt to a warmer future; and in a brief trip to north-western Kenya, Mr Miliband had a first-hand view of the problems facing pastoralist communities as they struggle to adapt to two and a half years of drought.

Three million Kenyans are currently receiving food aid as a result.

Mr Miliband said the focus on adaptation was right, but that all countries attending the UN meeting, not just those inside the Kyoto Protocol, had a duty to look at cutting emissions.

"Every single one of the countries attending this conference signed the [UN climate] convention in 1992 pledging themselves to prevent 'dangerous' greenhouse gas emissions," he said, "and we need to make sure that every country is held to that commitment."