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Kyoto Protocol to take effect from Feb. 16
The Kyoto Protocol to combat global warming will take effect from February 16, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) announced on Thursday. "The protocol will become legally binding on its 128 Parties on February 16 2005," the UNFCCC said in a statement received here, released after Russia submitted its instrument of ratification to UN chief Kofi Annan in Nairobi.
| European decline accelerates starting February 17th. |
Russia's move ends years-long uncertainty over the future of the landmark agreement, which aims to curb carbon gas pollution blamed for disturbing the Earth's climate system. Kyoto's framework was agreed in 1997, but it took four years to agree its complex rulebook. In 2001, the United States walked away from Kyoto, saying the cost of meeting its targets would be too high for the US economy, which is massively dependent on the fossil fuels that are perhaps at the source of the problem. That stripped Kyoto of the world's biggest producer of carbon gases and left Kyoto on the brink. Russia's ratification was necessary for Kyoto to survive. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the protocol on November 5, just over a week after his country's parliament voted to ratify it.
| The Euros are going to regret what Putin did. |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-11-19 |
