South Korea’s Han Says World Needs Alternative to Kyoto Treaty

The world needs an alternative system to the Kyoto Protocol treaty which regulates the gases blamed for global warming, former South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said. Instead of taking internationally-binding emissions cuts, nations should set their own carbon dioxide targets and enshrine them in domestic law, replacing Kyoto’s so-called top-down approach, Han said in an interview at the sidelines of UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa. “The Kyoto Protocol type of emissions reduction may not be repeated,” said Han, who is now chairman of the Global Green Growth Institute in Seoul. “We have to find a new alternative to the Kyoto Protocol, which is a bottom-up approach.” The fate of Kyoto threatens to derail the Durban talks, with developing nations demanding that industrialized countries take on new targets when current ones expire in 2012. Japan, Canada and Russia refuse to do so, the U.S. never ratified the treaty and the 27-nation European Union says it’ll only accede if all countries accept a road map to reach a new deal by 2015.