TCKTCKTCK campaigners urge Japan not to kill the Kyoto Protocol. [Photo by Li Xing/chinadaily.com.cn]?

Protesters voiced their concerns for the fate of the Kyoto Protocol at the United Nations climate change conference.

The protocol, which limited greenhouse gases emissions of developed countries, will expire in 2012 after its first commitment period ends. Japan said at the beginning of the Cancun conference that it would not extend the protocol to a second commitment period, because the current mechanism addresses only 27 percent of global carbon emissions.

"But it does not necessarily mean Japan need not do any more," said one female Japanese campaigner from TCKTCKTCK, an alliance of international environmental non-governmental organizations.

She criticized Japan's refusal as "damaging" to the ongoing negotiations in Cancun.

"All countries need to do as much as they can. Moving away from the Kyoto Protocol, the only global framework that prevents global warming, is not a solution to include emerging economies and the US."