Agreement on the Kyoto Protocol, Fighting Global Warming

The Proposals to Amend of the Kyoto Protocol, the first international agreement aimed at fighting global warming, was approved at the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was closed on Saturday.

The session was started on Oct. 29th in Marrakech, Morocco. Delegates from 165 countries officially approved the Proposals to Amend of the Kyoto Protocol at the general meeting on Nov. 10th. It put an end to the four grinding years of negotiation since the outlines of the Kyoto Protocol had prepared in 1997, and opened the way for enactment of the treaty from next year. Thus, the Kyoto Protocol secured a foothold for global pollution control.

The Kyoto Protocol requires by 2012 that about 30 industrialized countries cut their emissions of carbon dioxide and similar warming gases to about 5 percent below their levels in 1990 and aims to take effect before the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Sep. 2002.

To gain legal force, the treaty must be ratified by at least 55 countries, including a group responsible for at least 55 percent of the heat-trapping emissions from industrialized countries in 1990.

Each countries ratification process will go well for the treaty`s enactment next year. Although the United States, the largest source of greenhouse gases, rejected the treaty in March, much of the rest of the countries have strongly favored the treaty. Even the U.S. sent a delegation, it did not participate in the discussion.

Korea, which was classified as a developing country according to the Convention on Climate Change, will be restricted on the greenhouse gases from 2018.

According to the Ministry of Environment, Minister of Environment Kim Myung-Ja, who is attending at the conference as the head of Korean delegation, said, ``Korea, a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the 13th largest country in its size of economy, will face strong pressure for reducing the greenhouse gases. Thus, Korea should prepare to change the structures of energy-consuming industries into the environment-favor industries.``

sya@donga.com