Preparations to succeed Kyoto begin

Preparations are under way for the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. The hope is that the conference in Denmark will craft a new international pact to curb greenhouse gases to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, whose coverage ends in 2012.

Preliminary meetings were being held in Bonn, Germany in August. Two more rounds of pre-conference meetings will be held, one in Bangkok, Thailand in October, and another in Barcelona, Spain the following month.

Yvo de Boer,executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said “We are at an exciting point in the negotiations which can lead us to the turning point in the fight against climate change in Copenhagen.”

The conference in Copenhagen, entitled “COP15,” is being held this December 7-18. Delegates from 192 countries will take part.