Mexico City — The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, frequently given up for dead, finally entered into force on Wednesday. Its critics say the global pact for fighting climate change comes too late and offers to little: not only are its targets for curbing greenhouse gas emissions too modest, but many industrialised countries will not be able to meet those goals by the 2012 deadline.
Meanwhile, the international community is gearing up to launch negotiations this year that go beyond the Kyoto Protocol timeframe, a period in which several scientific forecasts indicate that climate change impacts could be worse than previously thought.
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