The UN has expressed concern that only a handful of countries have ratified an extension to the Kyoto Protocol, more than 18 months after they agreed to do so. Kyoto, the world’s only legally binding global emissions treaty, ran out at the end of 2012. At climate talks in Doha, December 2012, the 144 parties to the treaty agreed to extend the deal to 2020. However, so far only 11 have formally backed the amendment, despite an intervention by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in February 2013. Until all 144 parties deliver their “instruments of acceptance” to New York, the amendment will not enter into law. --Ed King, Reporting Climate Change, 4 September 2014
