The worldwide forum on climate change is marking the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol amid doubts on a new pact to tackle global warming.
A giant birthday cake was unveiled on the sidelines of the talks in Bali to commemorate 11 December 1997, when the world's most ambitious environment treaty was born in the Japanese city.
Two parties are to be staged this evening, one by Japanese green groups and the other by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The Kyoto Protocol took effect on 16 February 2005, after gruelling negotiations to complete its rulebook on curbing greenhouse-gas emissions.
But in its present form, it will not do enough to stem the surge in pollution, which scientists say is badly damaging the Earth's climate system.
The conference of 190 countries is seeking a roadmap to set the parameters for further negotiations leading to a new accord to accelerate cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions after 2012, when the protocol's current roster of pledges runs out.
Dimas warns of deadline
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has warned that just three days remain for ensuring that a new pact is sufficiently ambitious to tackle the climate challenge.
Talks on the Bali Roadmap are struggling on key questions on how extensive the post-2012 negotiation mandate should be and whether the negotiations should be set a two-year deadline for conclusion.
A previous commitment by Kyoto's industrialised countries, sketching their ambition to reduce their own carbon emissions by between 25% and 40% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, was weeded out in a new version of the text, according to green groups.
Similar text was under threat in a second document, this time from a group that includes the US, Japan and Canada, that argued that such figures would prejudge the negotiations for the post-2012 accord.
The talks have notched up their first significant success with a decision on how to administer a fund to bolster the defences of poor countries that lack the money, technology and skills to cope with climate change.
It will be financed by a levy of 2% on transactions under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a piece of Kyoto machinery by which rich countries get carbon credits.
They can offset these credits against their emissions targets, provided they invest in clean-energy projects in poor countries.
To check out our Climate Change website click here.
