Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the UK government. Photograph: Alan Weller/Getty news
By Fiona Harvey – Enviro Correspondent – Guardian, UK
The world should abandon the Kyoto protocol on climate change and move instead to a system where each nation would have a carbon emissions quota based on population, the UK's former chief scientist has urged, in an explosive contribution to the long-running climate negotiations.
Sir David King is one of the most respected figures in climate change policy.He is the architect of the UK's response to global warming, credited with reviving the flagging climate talks in 2004 when he called the problem "a greater threat than international terrorism".
He told the Guardian: "I can't see the Kyoto protocol making any headway - there are enough blocks in place, especially from the US and China, that it is wholly unlikely that it will go on. We need to be pragmatic." He said his proposals - by which countries could take their own actions on greenhouse gases without agreeing them at an international level - offered "a far more realistic pathway than hoping countries will come together in an international agreement at a single point".
"If you say only a full [legally binding] treaty is any good, we will still be arguing about it in 20 years," he said.
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