ISAS Insights

The 17th international climate conference was held in Durban, South Africa in November- December 2011 and was saved from collapse at the last minute. There were two contentious issues. One, whether the treaty being negotiated to replace the one adopted in 1997 at Kyoto, Japan would apply to the developing world as well. The Kyoto Protocol had exempted the developing world from the caps it envisaged on the emission of carbon dioxide. Two, how binding should the treaty be. The main objections to making the new treaty binding came from China and India who were now the first and third largest emitters of carbon dioxide. But this time around smaller developing countries parted company with these two Asian giants and sided with the developed world to ask for an enforceable climate control treaty. The Durban conference concluded with the promise to negotiate a new document by 2015.