WWF is urging countries to use the Kyoto Protocol as a framework to make drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
The conservation group said the Protocol, which came into force on February 16, represented a first step to containing the threat of climate change.
WWF wants all Kyoto parties to commit to limiting average global temperature rises to well below 2 degrees C, in order to safeguard against frequent and extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods which “could put many thousands of species at risk of extinction”.
The group is calling on industrialised countries to slash CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050, with global emissions cut by 50% during the same period.
The protocol currently asks industrialised nations to reduce emissions to at least 5% below 1990 levels by 2012.
