The World Bank's carbon finance initiatives will likely be needed for at least five years, as the United Nations struggles to create a self-sufficient, international carbon market, the manager of the bank's carbon finance unit told Reuters.

Negotiators at December's U.N. climate talks in South Africa agreed to extend the 1997 Kyoto Protocol - the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts on developed nations - for at least five years beyond its first commitment period at the end of 2012.