National voluntary agreements are essential to replace Kyoto

The Today Programme on Radio 4 featured a debate between Professor Sir David King and Jonathan Porritt who headed up the Sustainable Development Commission on what should replace the Kyoto Treaty when it expires next year.

Over the next two weeks scientists and politicians are gathering in Durban at the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to decide what should replace the current and internationally binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

During the discussion Sir David said,

“Not only is it [Kyoto] redundant, but more can be achieved from voluntary national commitments. What we have is 85 nations with very good voluntary commitments. These nations include China, which is on track to reduce emissions by 2020. And the list of nations in that grouping is expanding all the time. Since we abandoned the effort to make US sign up to Kyoto, we have seen an enormous amount of progress. I hope that the process in Durban does not get bogged down in wrangles over Kyoto and does get involved with putting flesh on the bones of this very good Cancun process.”

To listen to the full interview, click here.