Kyoto is still alive, but ministers from 189 countries have failed to agree a deal which corresponds to the problem of climate change, according to Christian Aid.

"There have been no steps backwards. Kyoto is still alive and kicking and the door is ajar to a new agreement in 2012,' said Andrew Pendleton, Christian Aid's climate change policy advisor. "But the final declaration from Nairobi leaves millions of the poorest and most vulnerable people in limbo and is a frighteningly timid response to a significant global problem."

Delegates agreed that the negotiations in Kenya were sufficient to serve as the first review of the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol and set their meeting in 2008 as the date of the next review.

But they also agreed that this review 'shall not lead to new commitments [to cut greenhouse gas emissions] for any party', seemingly blocking any significant new deal within the next two years.

"The lack of vision and leadership from day one to day 11 of this meeting has been staggering," said Mr Pendleton. "Although the deal is no disaster and demonstrates that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is the place where climate negotiations can hold together, unless there is a seismic shift in ambition between now and 2007, we will have to conclude that our current crop of politicians are not up to the challenge.

"This must be the last of these talks at which there is no clear mandate for negotiating the level of cuts in emissions that the science now tells us are necessary," said Mr Pendleton.

"Industrialised countries have a moral duty to guarantee poor countries right to develop. At the same time, they must ensure that carbon emissions across the world decline rapidly," said Mr Pendleton.