Signatories to the Kyoto protocol should continue greenhouse gas emission cuts after its first period expires in 2012, Prince Albert II of Monaco said on Thursday.
"The international community can not remain in its current passive condition and hold back from new obligations after the first round of the Kyoto commitments expires," the prince said.
The first period set out in the Kyoto protocol, during which levels of greenhouse gas emissions are to be cut by developed nations, ends in 2012. Developed and developing countries have not yet agreed on a further binding climate change regulation regime.
The next session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held at the end of 2011 in South Africa's Durban.