BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 30, 2002 (ENS) - Representatives from all European Union governments and the European Commission will formally ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change at a ceremony Friday at UN Headquarters in New York. The move marks a key step towards entry into force of binding greenhouse gas emission limits for industrialized countries.

European Commission President Romano Prodi (Photo courtesy EC)

The move pushes aside fears that Europe would not come through on its own promise to ratify by May 31. It will give the European Union strong moral authority at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in late August and early September.

The EU chose May 31 as its ratification deadline in the hope of seeing the protocol enter into force during the summit. In practice this cannot happen because too few other industrialized countries will ratify in time, but Europe will be able to claim that it did its bit.

Ratification on time looked in doubt up to the very last minute, with the whole bloc dependent on approval of its two last members, Italy and Greece. The Italian Senate formally approved the step last night. Greece's approval came through today.

Simultaneous ratification by all EU Member States is required because the protocol sets the bloc a collective target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent between 2008 and 2012. Under this arrangement, individual EU countries have taken on widely differing commitments through a burden sharing system.

The Kyoto Protocol requires 38 industrialized countries to cut their emissions of six heat trapping greenhouse gases from 1990 levels by an average of 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012, known as the first commitment period. The emissions of developing countries such as China, India and Brazil will be addressed in future negotiations.

Iceland's Breidamerkurjökull glacier has receded two kilometers since 1973, as shown by bare ground in this satellite image. The Breidamerkurjökull is an outlet glacier, part of the largest ice cap in Europe. (Image courtesy Dorothy Hall and Janet Chien, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

With EU ratification, the first requirement will be met. The second requirement now looks certain also to be fulfilled, but probably not for another few months.

Romania and the Czech Republic have already ratified the protocol, and other Eastern European countries are committed to doing so soon. Norway could officially ratify on Friday or Monday.

Japan is set to retify next week. The Japanese Cabinet will ratify the protocol on June 4, Environment Minister Hiroshi Oki said last Friday. The protocol was agreed in 1997 in the Japanese city of Kyoto. Under the requirement, which is legally binding, Japan must reduce its emissions by six percent.

This leaves only Russian support needed for the 55 percent of 1990 emissions barrier to be passed, which is expected later this year.

In a joint statement in Moscow Wednesday at the close of the Russia-European Union Summit, leaders of both governments pledged their support for the protocol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, European Council President J.M. Aznar of Spain, and European Commission President Romano Prodi stated, "We will make every necessary effort to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol becomes a real tool for solving the problems of global warming as soon as possible."

The leaders also confirmed their readiness to "cooperate closely" in preparing the World Conference on Climate Change to be held in Russia in 2003.

Scientific observations show the Earth’s surface is warming, according to a comprehensive 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Drought shrivels crops in Arkansas, September 1999. (Photo by Jerry Roberson courtesy NOAA)

Increasing concentrations of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, over the 21st century are "virtually certain to be mainly due to fossil fuel emissions," the IPCC said. Combustion of oil, gas and coal produce emissions of carbon dioxide which traps the Sun's heat close to Earth instead of allowing it to radiate normally back out into space.

Last November, past IPCC chairman Dr. Robert Watson warned that waiting too long to curb global warming could result in irreversible climate change.

In a speech to the 7th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, of which the Kyoto Protocol is a part, Dr. Watson said, "Inertia is a widespread inherent characteristic of the interacting climate, ecological, and socioeconomic systems. Thus some impacts of anthropogenic climate change may be slow to become apparent, and some could be irreversible if climate change is not limited in both rate and magnitude before associated thresholds, - whose positions may be poorly known, are crossed."

Dr. Watson said that failure to control global warming would result in "more hot days, heat waves, heavy precipitation events and fewer cold days."

Track the progress of Kyoto Protocol ratification on the Climate Action Network Europe scorecard at: http://www.climnet.org/EUenergy/ratification.htm

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}