MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kyoto pact starts despite U.S.

The Kyoto Protocol, the historic treaty requiring cuts in gas emissions which cause global warming, took effect yesterday with the support of 141 nations.

The 34 industrialised countries which have ratified the treaty are legally bound to slash output of greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent before 2012, with targets set for each nation based on their 1990 levels.

The treaty was reached in this ancient Japanese capital in 1997 amid fear that the rise in global temperatures could eventually lead to droughts and the extinction of some species.

"Today marks the end of a long process for the survival of all species on the planet, including our own," seven years after it was negotiated, imposing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases scientists blame for rising world temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace laureate, told a commemoration ceremony.

China, the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States, criticised Washington on Thursday for refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol, saying its failure to join the pact could doom efforts to reverse global warming.

The US pulled out of Kyoto in 2,001 in one of President George W Bush's first acts in office, saying it would hurt the US economy.

The US and Australia, the only other major industrial country to reject the treaty, account together for 30pc of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

The Bush administration points out that developing country such as China and India have no obligations under Kyoto, meaning that their growing economies would not face the same economic burden as the US.

China, with growth close to double digits, is by some forecasts expected to exceed the US as the world's top polluter by 2020. Developing countries will be asked to make commitments in the next phase of Kyoto negotiations to begin later this year.

More than 300 environmental activists marched through Kyoto to celebrate the start of the pact.

"Until such times as the major polluters of the world, including the US and China, are made part of the Kyoto regime it is next to useless to sign up for the Kyoto Protocol," Prime Minister John Howard said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday hailed the coming into effect of the protocol pledging to make the issue a global priority this year.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov brought attention to the protocol's exclusion of some developing nations; though President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser said the Kyoto agreement was "madness" and should be abandoned by Russia.

In Japan the enactment was being met with a mixture of pride and worry that the country is unprepared to meet its targets.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said climate change was one of the biggest challenges facing mankind and that there was "no time to lose" in formulating strategies that would follow the term of the Kyoto pact.

The European Union's Luxembourg presidency called yesterday on the US to take action to cut greenhouse gas emissions while Germany rebuked the US for its uncontrolled greenhouse-gas pollution. It also urged the EU to reduce its emissions by 30pc by 2020 and said it is prepared to take the lead.