It was important to vote on the bill for the Kyoto Protocol before the recess of the Turkish Parliament in order to participate the int'l conference in Poland as a formal member, the Parliamentary Environment Commission chairman said on Wednesday.
Commission chairman Haluk Ozdalga said in an interview with the Anatolian Agency, after approval of the bill on the Kyoto Protocol in parliament, it will bill be submitted to the U.N. Secretariat General and there would be a 3-month waiting period for approval of Turkey's membership.
The Turkish government decided on Monday to approve the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.-led global climate pact, and will send a bill on the issue to parliament shortly.
"If the approval is postponed to after parliament's recess, Turkey will not be able to attend the international conference, which will give shape to the era after the Kyoto Protocol, in Poland with the title of formal representative," he said.
The Kyoto Protocol is a pact agreed by governments at a 1997 U.N. conference in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
More than 170 nations have ratified the pact, which came into force in 2005 and Turkey is one of the few countries to have failed to do so.