Administrative and technical problems mean that Africa cannot profit from schemes to tackle climate change through projects to cut carbon emissions in developing countries, climate specialists meeting in Dakar said.

Austria will not be able to meet its Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions targets in 2012 unless it takes even tougher domestic measures, the Austrian Court of Audit warned Thursday.

Reaching the targets with national measures was `unlikely,` the court said in a new report published Thursday.

The 15 European Union countries that signed up to the 1997 Kyoto agreement on cutting greenhouse gases are collectively on track to meet their commitment, though individual performances vary, the European Environmental Agency said Thursday.

KYOTO, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - Kyoto, the city whose name is synonymous with the fight against global warming, is feeling the effects of climate change first-hand as the moss dries out in its celebrated gardens.

PARIS, June 1, 2008 (AFP) - After slumping to prices that had made it a near-laughing stock, the European Union's carbon market, the Emissions Trading System (ETS), has been given a useful boost by, of all things, oil.

OTTAWA, May 7, 2008 (AFP) - Canada's opposition on Wednesday accused the government of sabotaging its participation in the Kyoto Protocol, following a UN compliance committee's probing of its implementation in this country.

VIENNA, April 20, 2008 (AFP) - Austria has been forced to reconsider its environmental policy after two reports indicated the renewable energy leader will likely fail to meet its Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions targets in 2012.

BANGKOK, April 3, 2008 (AFP) - Negotiators here are working on the world's most ambitious pact yet against global warming, but questions are growing about how to force governments to live up to the promises they make.

SYDNEY, March 9, 2008 (AFP) - Australia will end years of chilly isolation on climate change when its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol comes into force Tuesday but remains one of the world's worst polluters for its size, analysts say.

BAGHDAD, Jan 26, 2008 (AFP) - Iraq has formally ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a government statement seen by AFP on Saturday.

'The presidential council ratified in its session on January 23 a law according to which the Republic of Iraq will join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol,' the statement said.

TOKYO, Dec 21, 2007 (AFP) - Japan, which is far behind on meeting its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol, can still achieve its targets if it takes additional voluntary measures, a government panel said Friday.

STOCKHOLM, Dec 18, 2007 (AFP) - Sweden reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by almost nine percent from 1990 to 2006, largely exceeding the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, the Swedish environment ministry said on Tuesday.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 11, 2007 (AFP) - Smiles, raised glasses and a giant birthday cake decorated with icons of green activism combined here Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the UN's landmark Kyoto Protocol.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 11, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's environment minister on Tuesday likened the decade-old Kyoto Protocol to an ambitious but difficult child as he appealed for understanding in the quest to deepen the treaty's scope.

SYDNEY, Dec 3, 2007 (AFP) - Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd became Australia's 26th prime minister Monday and immediately began dismantling the former government's policies by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

SYDNEY, Sept 5, 2007 (AFP) - Australia's failure to ratify the Kyoto protocol is costing the country 3.8 billion dollars (3.1 billion US) in lost investment opportunities, according a study released Wednesday.

Sustainability consultancy Cambiar said Australian firms investing in environmentally-friendly technology had been placed at a disadvantage by Prime Minister John Howard's refusal to ratify the climate change protocol.