Buenos Aires, Argentina - European participants at a UN global climate conference are leading discussions on ways to cut greenhouse emissions after 2012, looking beyond the timeframe laid out to curb global warming set by the Kyoto Protocol.
Yvo de Boer, the chief European Union negotiator, said Russia's recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol had inspired the nearly 200 nations at the conference to consider a post-Kyoto framework to curtail the gases blamed for Earth's warming.

"The general sense is that the atmosphere has dramatically changed and dramatically improved as a result of Russian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol," de Boer said. "Where there was a great reluctance before the Russian ratification to begin any discussion towards the future, that situation has clearly changed."
Added Jaap Frederiks, another EU negotiator with the Dutch delegation: "The time has come to think about the next step. We've always said Kyoto is not enough. Kyoto is just a start," he said.
'The rest of the world wouldn't move forward'
The United States and Australia are the biggest industrialized country to have rejected the Kyoto Protocol, a landmark agreement that takes effect in February and requires 30 of the world's developed nations to reduce their output of heat-trapping gases produced by industry, automobiles and power plants.
Developing countries, facing possible emissions controls for the first time after 2012, have resisted opening talks about the "post-Kyoto" future. Under Kyoto, governments pledged new limits on emissions by industrial nations.
Russia last month ratified the accord in a major political boost that further highlighted the US opposition as one the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. But the US stance, which has rankled European allies, hung over the annual United Nations gathering even as governments began discussing what comes after Kyoto.
"The main thing Russian ratification brought about is confirmation that the Kyoto Protocol is a global institution, and the US really is the odd one out," said Frederiks.
A US climate negotiator, Harlan L Watson, said on Tuesday that the United States should not be considered an environmental villain by supporters of the Kyoto Protocol, arguing the Bush administration plans to spend $5-billion annually on research and technological development related to global warming.
Many scientists believe the gases seriously threaten life on Earth by causing a gradual rise in the planet's temperature. Global warming has been blamed for more violent storms, rising sea levels and shrinking animal habitats.
Filipe Duarte Santos, a scientist at Lisbon University in Portugal, released a study on the impact of climate change on that small European nation. He said the country lost 400 000 hectares to forest fires last year and is at an increased fire risk, among other impacts on water tables, fish stocks and wildlife habitats.
He said data shows globally that temperature have risen more than 0,6 degrees Centigrade in the past century, and "in the past 30 years there is a very clear signal of an increase in the average temperature."
The International Red Cross cited concerns that global warming could trigger bigger floods, storms and even deadly droughts in decades to come, particularly in developing countries. It said temperature increases forecast by some experts could cause greater weather-related disasters such as hurricanes and floods.
Developing nations such as typhoon-prone Vietnam and Nicaragua are on the alert. The International Red Cross warned that if temperatures rise according to projections, Vietnam's central region could expect 20 percent more rain during the monsoon season, while Nicaragua - where could be threatened by more deadly storms.
Other experts disagree and say the long-term impact of climate change is still not fully understood, and US officials have questioned the effectiveness of the Kyoto treaty in curbing greenhouse emissions.
Lee Hayes Byron, with the environmental coalition US Climate Action Network, noted that Kyoto's ratification by other nations is a sign that global warming is widely considered a serious threat and insisted the Bush administration was ignoring scientific data.
"The rest of the world wouldn't move forward with the (Kyoto) treaty unless it was based on sound science," said Hayes Byron. "No matter what research comes out, the Bush administration is not willing to reassess their policy. - Sapa-AP