Kyoto Protocol Enters Into Force This Wednesday - 2/16

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NEW YORK — After seven politically painful years, the Kyoto Protocol finally enters into force on Wednesday, reining in industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" in a first attempt to control climate change. The global pact negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, remains a small step, potentially eliminating only one-tenth of a projected 30 percent rise in worldwide emissions between 1990 and 2010. Its supporters already are looking beyond it, toward bigger steps once the agreement expires in 2012.

Progress will be limited without the United States, however. The world's biggest emitter rejects the Kyoto pact and balks at discussing future mandatory cuts. European environment ministers, key Kyoto supporters, say they will step up efforts this year to win Washington over.

"We will continue to pressure hard for all of our international partners to come on board," European environment chief Stavros Dimas said last Wednesday as the European Commission proposed such post-2012 steps as extending emissions reductions to aviation and shipping. The Bush administration believes it is "premature" to plan talks, said Paula Dobriansky, a U.S. undersecretary of state.

Scientific evidence on climate change continues to mount. At a British government-sponsored conference in early February, international experts cited melting mountain glaciers, shrinking Arctic ice and changes in rainfall patterns, among other effects of global warming. Compared with even a few years ago, "there is greater clarity and reduced uncertainty about the impacts of climate change," the conference committee concluded."

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