China
has approved the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change. China has completed the domestic procedure for the approval of
the Kyoto Protocol with a view to taking an active part in multilateral
environmental co-operation.
Sources
with the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Ambassador Wang Yingfan, China's
permanent representative to the United Nations, deposited the instrument of
approval of the Kyoto Protocol with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last
Friday. The approval manifests China's positive stance towards international
environmental co-operation and world sustainable development.
The
Kyoto Protocol on climate change stipulates that developed countries should
cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent compared to
the level of 1990 during the 2008-12 period. The European Union countries
agreed to a reduction of 8 per cent, the United States to 7 per cent and Japan
to 6 per cent. The text of the protocol was adopted on December 11, 1997 and
was open for signature from March 16, 1998 to March 15, 1999. China signed it
on May 29, 1998.
However,
the Kyoto Protocol has yet to enter into force because the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted by the 90 signatory parties that have so far ratified
or approved the document accounts less than the required 55 per cent of the
total global greenhouse gas emissions.
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