'Different' approach to climate

All countries, both developed and developing, should take more concrete steps towards curbing global warming, one of the major and immediate challenges to mankind, in the forthcoming post-Kyoto era.

According to the UN climate conference in Indonesia in 2007, which culminated in the adoption of the Bali Roadmap, a set of quantitative standards for developed countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after 2012 should be drafted by this year, and plans be mapped out on how developing nations could take measures to reduce their emissions under the technological and funding support of developed ones.

Now, as COP15 (15th Conference of the Parties) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) approaches, there are international calls for more effort to tackle climate change. Compared to the situation in the past, what many countries now face is the need to reframe a new national development strategy or model instead of easing short-term political pressures as expedient tactics. For all countries, working out a post-Kyoto multilateral climate accord should be an indispensable part of their overall economic development blueprint.