India calls for ratifying Doha amendments to Kyoto Protocol

Marrakech: India on Wednesday asked the developed countries to ratify the Doha amendments to the Kyoto Protocol by April next year and not to put in "cold storage" the ambition of climate actions in the pre-2020 period.

"Both science and equity demand action now. We cannot put ambition in cold storage for the next four years. Let us talk about early and time bound ratification of Doha amendments. Let us take target of April 2017 for doing this," said Ravi Shankar Prasad, India's climate negotiator.

"When we are talking of completing implementation of Paris agreement, there is no reason why we should delay the implementation of Kyoto Protocol," he said.

The 1997 Kyoto protocol demanded targeted emission cuts from rich and industrialised countries which were mainly responsible for causing global warming. The protocol which came into effect in 2005 was to initially run uptil 2012 comes to an end in 2020.

Under its provisions, a group of developed countries were supposed to make targeted reductions in their emissions by the year 2012, in what was called the 'first commitment period'.

Though many countries failed to achieve these targets, fresh targets in a second commitment period running till 2020 were decided at the 2012 climate change conference in Doha through what came to be called the Doha Amendments to Kyoto Protocol.

Paris Agreement was supposed to be a post-2020 climate agreement, replacing the Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2020. However, earlier than expected entry into force of Paris Agreement means that the two agreements will run in parallel till the year 2020.