The participants in a two-day international conference on climate protection that opened in Prague on Wednesday discussed how to coordinate efforts by experts, NGOs and politicians after 2012 when the targets of the Kyoto Protocol expire.

Czech senator Bedrich Moldan, former Czech environment minister, said that the Czech Republic will certainly meet the protocol's targets.

"Our country has much less greenhouse gas emissions than in the past years thanks to a big decrease in industrial production after1989," Moldan who took part in the conference said.

The Czech emissions showed a 30-percent drop, he said.

However, Moldan added that the country pays only little attention to climate protection and energy consumption due to this drop.

Moldan pointed out that Czech economy needs one-third more energy than advanced old EU countries to achieve a given GDP level.

The European Union's executive arm cut the annual allocation of emission allowances for Czech to 86.8 million tons, 14.8 percent lower than what Prague had asked for last month.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme, based on national allocation of emission allowances, ensures that EU and its member states meet their emission commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gas releases by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2007)