Larger issues about what happens after the Kyoto Protocol expires remained up in the air Thursday, but the Green Climate Fund is on the right path, dpa quoted the head of the German delegation to the United Nations climate talks in South Africa as saying. "There is light at the end of the tunnel," German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen told reporters in Durban. Developing countries are pushing for the European Union to sign up for another period of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December2012. While they are exempted from legal requirements to reduce their earth-warming carbon emissions, they benefit financially from the carbon credits paid by developed countries for exceeding their limits. Creation of the structure of the Green fund is seen as a key measure of success for the gridlocked talks, which are taking place under the cloud of the expiring Kyoto Protocol.
