Russian MPs ratify Kyoto treaty

Found on BBC on Thursday, 21 October 2004
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Russia's lower house of parliament has ratified the Kyoto Protocol - the international treaty on climate change.

"The entry into force of Kyoto is the biggest step forward in environmental politics and law we have ever seen," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation group's climate change programme.

The US, world's biggest polluter, pulled out of the treaty in 2001.

"If they want to be responsible members of the world community, they must wake up to the threat of climate change, sign up to Kyoto, and take urgent action to cut their emissions," campaigner Catherine Pearce told the AFP news agency.

BBC science analyst Tracey Logan notes that many experts believe that Kyoto will be largely ineffective as the world's two biggest emitters, the US and China, will not cut their outputs.

The US might have sent the first man to the moon, but what counts more is the survival of planet earth. And Russia made a good step. Of course, for a capitalistic country like the US, spending money on C02 reduction generates no revenue. On the other hand, spending billions thanks to tornados and hurricanes stresses your purse. But who would assume that hurricanes have something to do with a changing climate?