a protocol that goes into effect early next year after Russia approved the treaty - expire after 2012, when the first phase ends. Tritten has targetted the refusal by the United States to join the convention, as the producer of 25 per cent of the world's total emissions. The U.S. under President George Bush withdrew from the agreement and refuses to accept any binding limits on emission rates. U.S. emission rates have increased in that period, experts say. The activist Singer warned however against pouring too much energy against Bush as the culprit, and called for the EU to cooperate with the U.S. economy and with individual U.S. states to reduce emissions. Jennifer Morgan of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) charged there was a "low level of urgency at the conference". Climate change and warming were threatening many species, which cannot adapt quickly enough on the changed conditions, she said. When Canadian caribous, for example, arrive at their birthing places these days, the grass is already dried out, she said. The number of Adelie penguins in the Antarctic region is falling, because the pack ice is thawing. --more 2308 Local Time 2008 GMT
