The Wire

The UN climate change conference starts in Durban next week, but many developed countries have already backed away from renewing the Kyoto Protocol, which expires next year.

Many say they couldn’t commit to another legally binding agreement to cut emissions until at least 2016. The Alliance of Small Island States, which represents the nations most vulnerable to climate change, says putting off a new pact for five years is careless. But Australia’s Climate Institute argues treaties are no longer the be all and end all, and that many countries are already doing more at home by investing in renewable energies and cutting emissions.