The World Council of Churches (WCC) executive committee, which met 25-28 September in Etchmiadzin, Armenia, said earlier in the week that the Kyoto Protocol is "an important step forward towards a just and sustainable global climate policy regime".

It stressed, however, that it needs to be fully implemented and said that "much more radical reductions [of greenhouse gas emissions] are urgently needed".

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that ten years ago established targets and a schedule for industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of "greenhouse" gases, widely deemed responsible for global warming.

Adopted in 1997, it only came into force in 2005 and ends in 2012.

In a 'Statement on the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol', the WCC executive committee called on the 174 states that have ratified the protocol to "fully implement its provisions", and on those which have not - especially major greenhouse gas emitters like the US and Australia - to "meet targets at least as strict as those included in the protocol".

Noting that "carbon emissions are still far above sustainable levels and even increasing", the committee denounced a "trend to convert the protocol into a market-based instrument for minimising economic damage to national economies and business opportunities instead of stressing its purpose of limiting greenhouse gas emissions".

The WCC governing body asks for a "more principle-based approach" to be implemented after 2012. It added that in order to achieve an "effective and equitable global policy on climate control", the WCC said the principle of equal entitlements to the use of the atmosphere and equal rights to development was needed.

It also pressed for the needs of the poorest and weakest to take priority and maximum risk reduction.

The statement affirmed that "more comprehensive policies to support and promote adaptation and mitigation programmes in countries severely affected by climate change" were needed.

It added that governments in the industrialised countries should "significantly increase support" to those programmes in the most vulnerable regions, namely the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific regions.

In conclusion the statement called on churches, church-related agencies and ecumenical bodies to "strengthen their commitment and to foster their co-operation with regard to climate change".