Russia ready to ratify Kyoto
2002-09-03 20:13
Johannesburg - Russia on Tuesday indicated it was ready to ratify the Kyoto protocol aimed at reducing the world's output of carbon-based gases - a move that will open the way for the accord to come into effect.
Russian Federation Chairman Mikhail Kasyanov said in Sandton,
Johannesburg, his country was preparing for ratification.
"We hope this will occur in the near future," he told the World
Summit on Sustainable Development in Sandton, Johannesburg.
China ratified the protocol last week, bringing to 89 the number
of countries that have done so. They include all 15 European states and Japan.
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, in his statement at the WSSD
on Tuesday, reiterated that his country had "completed the domestic procedure for the approval of the Kyoto protocol".
The accord can only come into effect once it has been ratified
by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of
carbon dioxide emissions, based on 1990 levels.
Ratification of one big industrialised nation is still required,
and those favouring the protocol have been pinning their hopes on
Russia to realise the 55% mark.
Under the accord, drawn up in Kyoto, Japan, nations agreed to
lower their emissions of gases that increase the greenhouse effect of trapping the sun's rays in the atmosphere and warming the Earth.
The protocol requires industrialised nations to trim output of
greenhouse gases by 5.2% by the year 2012. Fossil fuel
emissions in the industrialised world are the main source of global warming.
The United States, the leading emitter of greenhouse gases, last
year said it would not ratify the accord.
Until late last week, the Kyoto protocol was one of the sticking
points in talks of finalising a draft action plan for the WSSD,
with the US opposing any mention of Kyoto in the document.
Negotiators struck a deal at the weekend that provided for a
section on Kyoto that read in part: "States that have ratified the protocol urge states that have not already done so to ratify the Kyoto protocol in a timely manner."
Russian deputy minister for Economic Development and Trade,
Mukhamed Tsikanov, last week reportedly said there was "a risk"
Moscow would reverse its commitment to Kyoto, indicating Russia was using the issue as a bargaining chip in summit negotiations.
Several world leaders have over the past two days, in statements
to the plenary of the summit, came out in favour of the protocol
being put into action.
On Monday, The European Commission also urged Russia to ratify.
"We need their signature to make progress," president of the
commission Romano Prodi told reporters at the summit.
- SAPA