Russian president signs Kyoto

2004-11-05 14:12

Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin put his signature to the United Nations' Kyoto climate change treaty on Friday, just over a week after his country's parliament voted to ratify the document, the Kremlin said.

Having signed the treaty, which had previously been blocked due to the need for either Russia or the United States to ratify it, Putin is now due to notify the United Nations of his country's approval of the pact, which is aimed at cutting the pollution emission that cause global warming of the world's atmosphere.

Russia's ratification of the treaty will become effective three months after Putin has notified the UN of the move, Kremlin officials say.

The treaty was adopted at a UN conference on climate change in 1997, but the United States, the world's number-one emitter of the gases that cause global warming, rejected it in March 2001.

- AFP