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BANGKOK: Commitments by most developed countries to cut carbon emissions are likely to expire at the end of next year without a new round of legally binding pledges, the UN's climate chief warned Monday.
Christiana Figueres said governments needed to start preparing for a gap on the expiry of pledges under the Kyoto Protocol, which forms the foundation of the world's efforts to cut the emissions that are blamed for global warming.
"Governments have to face the fact that a gap in this effort looks increasingly impossible to avoid," Figueres told reporters in Bangkok during the UN's first round of climate talks for the year.
"In 2011 they need to figure out how to address this issue and how to take it forward in a collective and inclusive way. Resolving this will create a firmer foundation for an even greater collective ambition to cut emissions."
Signed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol saw most developed nations agree to legally binding agreements in curbing their greenhouse gas emissions.
Those commitments are due to expire at the end of 2012.
But Japan and Russia have firmly opposed extending the protocol because it excludes the world's two biggest polluters -- China and the United States -- and therefore only covers about 30 percent of global emissions.
China did not have to commit to cutting emissions because of its status as a developing country, while the United States refused to ratify the protocol.
Some governments and many observers have warned that failing to reach an agreement on fresh carbon emission reduction targets would undermine potential progress in other vital areas of the UN's efforts to tackle global warming.
The Kyoto Protocol in effect only involves developed countries minus the United States.
But the rest of the negotiations involve all 194 parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change, and looks at many long-term ways to reduce and adapt to global warming.
The six days of talks in Bangkok, which began on Sunday, are aimed at kickstarting UN negotiations for the year ahead of the UN's annual climate summit in Durban, South Africa, in November.
-AFP/ac
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