Kyoto Protocol: E.U. members ratify treaty
In a boost to the global fight against climate change, all the 15 nations in the European Union have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and urged the United States to end its opposition to the treaty.
The E.U. has been at the forefront of the campaign to cut pollution that scientists say is warming the planet, and the simultaneous ratification by E.U. members represented a major step toward implementing the treaty.
The ceremony also highlighted the U.S. Government's isolation as the only announced opponent of the 1997 accord. One by one, envoys from the 15 E.U. members presented the documents of ratification from their Governments to the U.N. legal adviser, Hans Corell, at the U.N. headquarters.
The E.U. Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, who handed over a separate ratification from the organisation itself, hailed the historic moment for global efforts to combat climate change and pointedly singled out the U.S. as the only country to reject the treaty.
To take effect, the Kyoto accord must be ratified by 55 countries, but the ratifications must also include industrialised nations responsible for at least 55 per cent of the 1990 levels of greenhouse gases blamed for heating the atmosphere.
The E.U., whose members produced 24.2 per cent of emissions in 1990, represented the first major industrialised bloc to ratify the treaty. Before Friday, the vast majority of countries that had ratified were developing countries. Only the Czech Republic, Romania and Iceland, which together were responsible for less than 3 per cent of the 1990 emissions, had ratified among industrialised nations.
With the U.S., which was responsible for 36.1 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in 1990, opting out of the treaty, the E.U. said the support of Japan, which was responsible for 8.5 per cent, and Russia, which was responsible for 17.4 percent, is crucial.
The E.U. boosted the number of ratifications to about 70, topping the minimum needed, and pushed the treaty about halfway to the goal of 55 per cent of the greenhouse gas pollution levels for it to take effect.
The Kyoto Protocol was signed by the administration of the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, but never ratified by the Senate.
The President, George W. Bush, backed out of it last year, saying it would cost the U.S. economy $400 billion and 4.9 million jobs.
The European Union urges the United States to reconsider its position and to return to and participate in the global framework for addressing climate change that this protocol provides.
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