The Kyoto Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005, enrolling 141 countries in a binding commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions after more than seven years of negotiations.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called climate change "one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century," cautioning that the treaty alone would not eliminate the danger. The EU welcomed the milestone as a starting point, with foreign policy chief Javier Solana warning that climate change threatened security as well as the environment.
Attention fell heavily on the United States, which withdrew from the accord in 2001 and is responsible for more than a fifth of global emissions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said climate change would bring catastrophe within three or four decades and pledged to pull Washington back into negotiations alongside the fast-growing emitters China and India.
German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin noted that US per-capita greenhouse gas output runs two and a half times the European average. Australia also refused to ratify, arguing the pact disadvantaged its economy while larger polluters stayed outside it.
A structural weakness runs through the agreement: developing nations, including China and India, face no mandatory emissions targets. Even among Kyoto's industrialized parties, reductions by 2012 are likely to reach only a couple of percentage points below 1990 levels as global output continues to rise.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in February 2005, in its own words.