Draft text released at Cancun climate conference
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At the end of the first week of the ongoing UN climate change conference, a 33-page UN draft text outlining options for a possible deal for the conference was released Saturday.
The draft provides two options for the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the only legally binding international treaty that commits most of the world's developed countries to making emission cuts, as wrestling over the second period of the protocol is heating up at Cancun.
One allows an extension of the Kyoto Protocol and another leaves its future unclear.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Japan in 1992 by major emitting countries, which committed themselves to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent from their 1990 levels by 2012.
After the draft was released, chief Chinese negotiator Su Wei told a conference of parties, "We are all here to seek a comprehensive and balanced outcome. I think one of the indispensable elements in this balanced package is the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol."
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