On 20 July, the UN Climate Secretariat issued a paper entitled 'Legal considerations relating to a possible gap between the first and subsequent commitment periods'. It explores options to avoid a legal vacuum if a second carbon reduction commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol does not enter into force by 1 January 2013. So far there is no new climate deal in sight to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which placed carbon emissions caps on nearly 40 countries for the period 2008-2012…

The paper issued by the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention for Climate Change) says one option would be to extend the current commitment period. "A delay in the entry into force beyond 1 January 2013 would result in a gap between the end of the first commitment period and the beginning of the subsequent commitment period [of emissions targets]", the paper stresses. But this first option would involve considerable delays, it adds: "Domestic ratification processes are likely to involve [...] national legislative bodies, a process that may involve a considerable amount of time".

Another solution would be to apply the new climate deal on a provisional basis pending its entry into force as permitted by the 1969 Vienna Convention on the law of treaties. This solution would enable to avoid relying on lengthy national approvals. But UNFCCC parties failed to come to an agreement on a new climate treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009, and there is now little time to achieve it during the next climate summit of Cancún (29 November – 10 December 2010). The document issued by the UNFCCC points out that an agreement at the 2011 climate summit in South Africa would give less than a year to enforce the new treaty, and argues that its ratification is unlikely to be achieved within such a short period of time. That is why it urges governments to seriously consider the options outlined in the paper.

They should also keep in mind the serious consequences that would have a legal vacuum after the expiration of the current commitment period: this would jeopardize the future of carbon emissions trade and of CO2 emissions reduction projects under the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the paper warns.