Russia and Canada shock summit with plans to ratify Kyoto treaty

By GEOFFREY LEAN

JOHANNESBURG - Russia and Canada have taken the Summit on Sustainable Development by surprise by announcing that they are moving towards ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

The announcements pave the way for the treaty to come into force, possibly before the end of the year.

The announcements will come as a bitter blow to United States President George Bush, who did not attend the summit and has set out to kill the Kyoto Protocol since coming to power last year.

It comes as a further set-back after the United States' success at the summit in blocking any targets for increasing renewable energy supplies.

Under the treaty, nations responsible for 55 per cent of the industrialised countries' emissions of carbon dioxide - the main cause of global warming - have to ratify before it comes into force.

Ratifications by Russia and Canada will take the treaty well over the threshold - leaving the United States and Australia isolated in rejecting it.

John Prescott, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister, and Margaret Beckett - the British Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary - said that they were "thrilled" by the news.

"This is extremely good news", said Mrs Beckett. "We have been working very hard to persuade countries that this is the right thing to do."

The announcements came after concerns that both countries might not ratify the treaty, causing it to fail. Last Friday, Mukhamed Tsikanov, Deputy Minister in Russia's Ministry for Economic Development and Trade warned: "There is a risk, without a doubt", that Russia would not ratify.

But yesterday the country's Prime Minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, told the summit: "Russia has signed the Kyoto Protocol and we are now preparing its ratification. We consider that ratification will take place in the very near future".

He later added that this meant "maybe this year".

Meanwhile doubts about Canada - which has been under heavy US pressure to stay out of the treaty - increased when its Environment Minister said two weeks ago that it would almost certainly be unable to announce at the summit that it would ratify.

But in his speech to the summit, Canada's Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, said: "We are finalising a plan of implementation that will permit us to achieve the objectives of the Kyoto accord. When the consultations have concluded, and before the end of the year, the Canadian Parliament will be asked to vote on the ratification of the Kyoto accord."

To complete delegates' delight, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji announced that his country had already ratified the protocol. China's participation is not needed to bring the treaty into force, but still gives it an immense boost as it is one of the world's biggest sources of carbon dioxide.

Last night, Kate Hampton, Climate Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said that the Canadian and Russian announcements were "totally unexpected" and added; "This is wonderful news. Russia and Canada have resisted intense US pressure. George W. Bush has been foiled again."

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