LONDON: The European Union and Japan ratified the Kyoto protocol on Friday binding themselves to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite America’s refusal to have anything to do with the treaty.
The decision, announced on the first day of a meeting in Bali to make final preparations for the Earth summit in Johannesburg in August, is designed to give the talks a much-needed impetus.
John Prescott, Britain’s deputy prime minister and one of the architects of the Kyoto deal in 1997, was delighted. The Japanese foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, rang him
to wish him a happy birthday and tell him of her government’s surprise decision to ratify.
It is exactly 10 years since the convention on climate change was first negotiated at the inaugural Earth summit in Rio. The first legally binding cuts were negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, but agreeing the details proved difficult and the United States, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, pulled out when George W. Bush was elected.
The rest of the industrialized world decided to go ahead with the treaty in Bonn last year and the European Union promised to ratify it before the Johannesburg summit. Some of America’s allies, particularly Canada and Australia, have been reluctant to proceed. Japan, however, is emotionally attached to the treaty because it was negotiated in one of its cities, and had been keen to push ahead as long as the US was on board.
For the Kyoto protocol to enter into force, 55 parties to the convention must ratify it, including industrialized countries accounting for 55 per cent of their total combined carbon dioxide emissions in 1990.
Almost all other large industrial countries, including Russia and the eastern European states need to join.
The ratifications have given fresh impetus to the process, increasing the percentage of industrialized country emissions now covered under the protocol from 2.7 per cent to around 35.2 per cent.
Prescott said Russia, with 17.4 per cent, had already begun the process, and President Vladimir Putin had promised to complete. More signatories were still required to reach 55 per cent.
In ratifying the Kyoto protocol, the EU legally commits itself to reduce greenhouse gases by 8 per cent from 1990 levels in the period 2008 to 2012, and Japan by 6 per cent.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.
