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November 5, 2004

Russia ratifies Kyoto treaty; treaty now takes effect

From UPI:

The completion of Russia's ratification process, which began last month when Moscow's legislature passed an enabling bill, brings the protocol into effect more than seven years after the pact was adopted in December 1997 at a U.N. climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan.

This was an easy call by Russia. They will be able to trade pollution "credits" to higher-polluting countries in exchange for cold, hard cash.

US refusal to ratify the protocol is yet another reason for Bush-haters around the world to hate Bush (a search on the key word "kyoto" in Google News reveals many current examples).

The article gives an explanation for the timing (related to getting assurances of EU support for Russian acceptance into the World Trade Organization), but I think it's significant that this happened just three days after the U.S. election. For all of the disagreements between the two countries, President Putin appears to genuinely like President Bush. I can't help but think he was persuaded (or decided on his own) to wait until now to avoid the ratification becoming an issue against Bush before Nov. 2.

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