BONN - Environment ministers meeting in Germany reached a last-minute compromise deal last night to salvage the Kyoto accord on cutting the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
"It's a brilliant day for the environment. It's a huge leap to have achieved a result on this very complex international negotiation," British Environment Minister Michael Meacher said. "It's a huge relief."
As the deal was struck, Applause rang out in the room where ministers had bargained for hours.
Japan, Canada, Russia and Australia had finally backed a compromise accord been pushed by the European Union to avert a potentially disastrous failure after the collapse of a summit at The Hague in November and withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto negotiations this year.
There was a chance that some of the 185 countries present at the United Nations talks in Bonn might yet reject the plan at an overnight debating session but what was vital was that the key industrial powers had settled their differences.
