despite incremental progress on a few technical issues, delegates left the bulk of the unresolved political questions open to debate at future meetings during the latest climate change meeting at Bonn, Germany. The 10th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies to the Framework Convention on Climate Change ( fccc ), held between May 31 and June 11, was attended by diplomats from over 170 countries.

Global climate change may well be the most significant environmental problem of our time, if not for its severe consequences, then for its ability to test the extent of humankind's collective conscience to take moral responsibility for a problem of its making. If the ongoing international environmental negotiations are any indication, however, the world community is yet to come of age.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires Parties in Annex I (industrialised) countries to the Convention to reduce their overall greenhouse gas ( ghg ) emissions by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels during 2008-2012. The protocol provides three mechanisms to aid countries in achieving these commitments