Climate Policy 3 (2003) 221–231 Climate negotiations beyond Kyoto: developing countries concerns and interests Adil Najam a,b,* , Saleemul Huq c,d , Youba Sokona e a Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA b Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan c International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK d Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh e ENDA Environnement et Developpement du Tiers Monde, Dhaka, Senegal Received 12 March 2002; received in revised form 24 March 2003; accepted 14 May 2003 Abstract Five years down the road from Kyoto, the Protocol that bears that city’s name still awaits enough qualifying ratifications to come into force. While attention has been understandably focussed on the ratification process, it is time to begin thinking about the next steps for the global climate regime, particularly in terms of a deeper inclusion of developing countries’ concerns and interests. This paper begins doing so from the perspective of the developing countries. The principal argument is that we need to return to the basic principles outlined in the Framework Convention on Climate Change in searching for a north–south bargain on climate change. Such a bargain may be achievable if we can realign the policy architecture of the climate regime to its original stated goals of sustainable development. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Climate change; Kyoto Protocol; UNFCCC; North–south; Developing countries; Environmental negotiations 1. Introduction The recent Conferences of the Parties to the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) seem to have managed to resuscitate what had seemed to be a sinking Kyoto Protocol, despite the US decision to abandon the agreement (Müller, 2002b). However, the decisions taken during this process of post-Kyoto negotiations leave the Protocol riddled with all the many problems that had dogged the original agreement while further diluting its content. From the perspective of the developing countries of the south, the Protocol, which had been imperfect to begin with, is now all the more imperfect (Agarwal et al., 1999; Najam, 2001). * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-617-627-3700; fax: +1-617-627-3712. E-mail address: adil.najam@tufts.edu (A. Najam). 1469-3062/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1469-3062(03)00057-3