BASIC countries call for commitment on climate change

Climate change ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China, also known as the BASIC countries, have called on the developed economies to "scale up ambitions" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet the 2-degree target, a week before a climate change conference in Doha, Qatar.

The Kyoto Protocol will remain a sticking point of negotiations in Doha as some countries have made the decision not to sign on for the second period of the Kyoto Protocol despite an agreement made by negotiators to extend it in Durban, South Africa, in 2011.

However, so far only New Zealand, Canada and Japan have clearly declined to renew their commitment to the protocol after the first period expires at the end of this year, said Ambassador Andre Correa do Lago, director of the department of the environment and special affairs of Brazil's ministry of external relations and the country's chief negotiator.