Climate Treaty Drafting Put Off, Waits For Next U.S. President

April 6, 2008 10:54 a.m. EST

Bangkok, Thailand (AHN) - Plans to draft an international treaty citing global agendas for the fight against global warming have been postponed until after the upcoming U.S. presidential elections.

According to officials, the final decisions on what would be a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol, set to expire 2012, will be made in 2009, after the election of a new U.S. president who, compared to current president George W. Bush, is expected to be a firm supporter of the environmental cause.

"We're all looking forward to moving ahead more swiftly in 2009 when finally there is a U.S. administration that recognizes the urgency of climate change," Greenpeace adviser David Mittler was quoted as saying by the Agency France Presse.

"The world community has to make it clear that they expect the U.S. to join in a real, climate-saving agenda," he continued, "to ensure a world that still has things like coral reefs and farmers in Africa who are not made refugees."

The decision to put off the draft proceedings was made during the international convention, which concluded Friday. The main purpose of gathering was to draft a Kyoto Protocol successor.

The three candidates for the presidency, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY), have publicly declared their support for an agenda to fight global warming.

McCain bucked the Republican Bush administration in the battle against climate change, and Obama and Clinton have declared support for an 80 percent cut in emissions by 2050.

Still enforced, the Kyoto Protocol asks for 37 countries to reduce their pollution down to 1990 levels by the year 2012.

According to Bloomberg reports, current global warming trends would raise the earth's temperature by 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri, this would have detrimental effects on the world food supply, as well as threaten extinction to a number of the world's species.