U.N. officials agree they must craft a post-Kyoto framework that wins Washington's approval.

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These countries have produced their own draft document, which would absorb any new agreement into the existing Kyoto framework.

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"Ms Whitman was very positive about climate change being a global issue, about the scientific evidence and that the Kyoto framework was something they should work within, " a senior British official said.

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Frankly, a Kyoto-type framework--one with global quantitative emissions targets allocated among countries--that meets the above conditions is not feasible.

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For all the fuss that has surrounded its Kyoto protocol and subsequent negotiations, the Framework Convention on Climate Change shows, at best, that international climate negotiations are possible but it may never show that they can achieve significant results in mitigating global warming.

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The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

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However, some industry experts say the expiration of the Kyoto treaty in 2012, by disbanding the separate United Nations emissions trading framework, could potentially create more impetus for innovative approaches such as Mr. Palella's Carbon Manna.

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Conference was intended to produce a framework agreement for climate change mitigation beyond 2012, as a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

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Although there was no firm commitment on numbers, the agreement accepts the need to develop a global framework, under UN auspices, by the end of next year, ready to replace the Kyoto protocol on climate change when it expires in 2012.

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