South African Press Association (Johannesburg)
3 September 2002
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 percent 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-percent 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 percent 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.[WSSD]
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