Bonn summit key stepping stone to Paris climate treaty

CLIMATE negotiators are meeting in Bonn from June 1 for a key 10-day United Nations summit as this year's deadline for a new global climate deal, to replace the Kyoto Protocol, draws closer. After several years of intensive diplomacy, governments have until this December at a major UN conference hosted in Paris to secure agreement.

Last week, French President Francois Hollande warned that time was short for a deal and called upon world leaders to find solutions for the complex challenges still in play. In Mr Hollande's words, "200 days are left...that may seem a lot of time, but in fact there's very little...it's urgent".

In the context, agreement of another, even more complex top-down deal than was Kyoto in 1997 may be unrealistic in 2015 given the limited time now left for negotiation. Kyoto produced a landmark and vital agreement with commitments for around 40 developed countries and the EU states, but the even greater complexity of a potential Paris deal means that we may well need a different model today.