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Fiji to push for continuation of Kyoto Protocol

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Fiji continued to push for a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol as negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) got underway in Doha, Qatar, the Fijian government announced Tuesday.

Members of the Fiji delegation have arrived in Doha to attend pre-negotiations meetings with fellow members of the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) and the Group of 77 in the lead up to the two weeks of negotiations, Fiji's Ministry of Information said in a statement.

The Kyoto Protocol entered into force in 2005 and commits industrialized countries to stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. The first commitment period of the Protocol expires at the end of this year.

Together with its developing country partners, Fiji was insisting in Doha that all amendments to the Protocol be effective from Jan.1, 2013 for a five-year period, and that industrialized countries honor their commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45 percent during the second commitment period, and by at least 95 percent by 2020 as compared to 1990 levels.

However, not all countries are parties to the Protocol, and Fiji will continue to call on those countries to make emission reduction commitments comparable to those made by parties, said the statement, adding if hard decisions to cut emissions are not made now, developing countries will be forced to confront issues of adaptation on a previously unimaginable scale.

The adverse impacts of climate change within the South Pacific country continued to follow an extreme path and included flash floods, cyclones, rising sea-levels, storm surges, water shortage and droughts.

Fiji's position at the Doha climate change negotiation reflects a communique by AOSIS leaders adopted in September in New York calling on parties to agree to a five-year second commitment period of the Protocol to run from Jan.1, 2013, said the statement.