Global pact launches amid muted celebrations

A WORLD plan to fight global warming went into force yesterday, feted by its backers as a lifeline for the planet amid sniping at the US for staying out.

After years of delays, the UN Kyoto Protocol on curbing human emissions of gases blamed for disrupting the climate took effect at midnight, with muted celebrations of a deal Washington dismisses as an economic straitjacket.

Green groups marked Kyoto with protests outside US embassies and consulates, street parades in Japan and by carving fast-melting ice sculptures of kangaroos in Australia.

"Climate change is a global problem. It requires a concerted global response," UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in remarks to be aired at a ceremony in the Japanese city of Kyoto, where the pact was signed in 1997.

"I call on the world community to be bold, to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol and to act quickly in taking the next steps," he said. "There is no time to lose."

Supporters of the 141-nation pact say it is a tiny step to slow global warming by imposing legally binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions in 35 developed nations, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.

Climate experts fear projected temperature rises could disrupt farming, raise sea levels by melting ice caps, cause more extreme weather such as hurricanes or droughts, spread diseases and wipe out thousands of animal and plant species by 2100.

The US pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto was too costly, based on unreliable science, and unfairly excluded big developing nations like India, China and Brazil, which account for a third of the world's population.

Some backers made veiled criticisms of Washington.

Some "141 countries have not allowed this process to be blocked by the unilateral power play of one country", German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said, outlining plans for even bigger German cuts beyond 2012.

"Of course China and India are very important and growing economies. But they aren't in some way reneging on the Kyoto Protocol, they were never supposed to be part of it," British Environment Minister Margaret Beckett told BBC radio.

Under Kyoto, developed nations will have to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Among major developed nations, only Australia has joined the US on the sidelines.

"Until such time as the major polluters of the world, including the United States and China, are made part of the Kyoto regime it is next to useless and indeed harmful for a country such as Australia to sign up to the Kyoto Protocol," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told parliament.

Some sceptics reckon Kyoto will cost €115.5 billion a year and that it will have no measurable effect.

By contrast, the EU hailed the pact.

"Climate change is happening already ... but we know Kyoto is only a first step," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said, noting that the World Health Organisation believed climate change was already killing 150,000 people a year.

In Sydney, ice sculptures of kangaroos and koalas melted during a protest by green groups over Australia's refusal to ratify.

In China, home to 1.3 billion people and one of the world's fastest-growing economies, a man dressed as a gloomy-looking polar bear took to Beijing's streets as part of a Greenpeace China campaign.

Even if fully implemented, Kyoto would cut temperature rise by just 0.1C by 2100, according to UN figures, tiny compared to forecasts by a UN climate panel of an overall rise of 1.4C to 5.8C by 2100.

The worldwide battle against climate change moved up a gear yesterday as the landmark Kyoto Treaty came into force.

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement imposing limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases scientists blame for rising world temperatures, melting glaciers and rising oceans.

It was negotiated in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997 and ratified by 140 nations.

What are the protocol's aims?

The Kyoto targets vary by region: Britain and Northern Ireland are committed to cutting emissions by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2012 and the European Union to an 8% reduction on 1990 levels by 2012. The US agreed to a 7% reduction before US President George W Bush denounced the pact in 2001.

Why is the Kyoto Protocol coming into force seven years after being negotiated?

The Kyoto agreement was delayed by the requirement that countries accounting for 55% of the world's emissions must ratify it. That goal was reached last year when Russia signed up on November 18, 2004.

Why has the US pulled out?

The US, the world's largest emitter of such gases, has refused to ratify the agreement, saying it would harm the economy and is flawed by lack of restrictions on emissions by China and India.

Will it make much difference?

Scientists say the agreement only just begins to tackle the problem of global warming.

* Alison Purdy