EU Misses Kyoto Protocol Deadline Before December Conference - AFP

[hatrack]

"The European Union lost a round in its battle to turn the Kyoto Protocol on global warming from a draft pact into an international treaty. September 6 was a symbolic deadline for signatories to ratify Kyoto ahead of a major meeting, due in Buenos Aires from December 6-17.

Supporters had been desperately hoping Russia would ratify in time so that the gathering in Argentina could be the first at which Kyoto is debated as a full-fledged treaty rather than a draft agreement whose future is in doubt.

Ever since US President George Bush ditched Kyoto in 2001, all eyes have been on Russia, whose ratification is required under the mathematics of Kyoto's rulebook to push the agreement over the numbers threshold.

But as of Monday, Russia not only had failed to ratify - it still appeared reluctant and divided about even wanting to do so, reviving fears that the complex accord to trim greenhouse-gas emissions would be consigned to limbo."

EDIT

http://afr.com/articles/2004/09/07/1094322742760.html