Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill confirming Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the Kremlin said yesterday, giving the final stamp of approval to the global climate pact that will come into force early next year.
Both houses of parliament ratified the protocol last month, which aims to stem global warming by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
Putin signed the bill on Thursday, the Kremlin said.
Without Russia's support, the pact -- which has been rejected by the US and Australia -- could not have come into effect.
It needed endorsement by at least 55 industrialized nations accounting for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions in 1990.
The US alone accounted for 36 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions in 1990, while Russia accounted for 17 percent.
After years of hesitation, Putin pledged in May to speed up approval in return for EU support for Russia's bid to join the WTO. The 1997 pact would take effect 90 days after Russia notified the UN of its ratification.
The pact's approval followed fierce debate among Russian officials. Opponents, led by Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illari-onov, warned that it would stymie the nation's economic growth.
Kyoto backers, however, rejected the claim, saying that even after a five-year recovery, the post-Soviet economic meltdown has left emissions some 30 percent below the baseline.
Some Russian officials have voiced hope that the treaty's provisions allowing countries to trade greenhouse-gas emission allowances would enable Moscow to attract foreign investment for its crumbling industries.
Under the treaty, Russia can sell unused emissions credits to countries that exceed their limits.
Once the deal takes effect, industrialized countries will have until 2012 to cut their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below the 1990 level.
Greenhouse gases are believed to trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the Earth.
The next round of international climate talks is scheduled for next month in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and negotiations on curbing emissions after 2012 are due to start next year.
Russia's parliament has said that Moscow's decision on post-2012 emission cuts would be contingent on the outcome of those talks.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
‘NO WORKABLE SOLUTION’: An official said Pakistan engaged in the spirit of peace, but Kabul continued its ‘unabated support to terrorists opposed to Pakistan’ Pakistan yesterday said that negotiations for a lasting truce with Afghanistan had “failed to bring about a workable solution,” warning that it would take steps to protect its people. Pakistan and Afghanistan have been holding negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, aimed at securing peace after the South Asian neighbors’ deadliest border clashes in years. The violence, which killed more than 70 people and wounded hundreds, erupted following explosions in Kabul on Oct. 9 that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan. “Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue and resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses,” Pakistani Minister of
UNCERTAIN TOLLS: Images on social media showed small protests that escalated, with reports of police shooting live rounds as polling stations were targeted Tanzania yesterday was on lockdown with a communications blackout, a day after elections turned into violent chaos with unconfirmed reports of many dead. Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to solidify her position and silence criticism within her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or disqualified. In the run-up, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, which has seen a string of high-profile abductions that ramped up in the final days. A heavy security presence on Wednesday failed to deter hundreds protesting in economic hub Dar es Salaam and elsewhere, some
RSS