Trittin: Milestone for global climate protection
Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin paid tribute to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which entered into force this Sunday (21 March) 10 years ago, as a milestone in climate protection and as the most successful global Convention. "Nearly every state in the world, including the USA and Russia, has acceded to this Convention. This is a strong signal for multilateralism. Climate protection is the biggest challenge of our century in the field of environment policy and we can only cope with it jointly." Trittin also appealed to Russia to live up to their responsibility for the climate and finally ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The Minister pointed out that the ratification would bring about great economic benefits in view of the modernisation of the Russian energy infrastructure to be expected and the possibilities of emissions trading.
The Framework Convention on Climate Change of the United Nations entered into force exactly 10 years ago, on 21 March 1994. The Convention was adopted in 1992, shortly before the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and was opened for signature there. A total of 188 states have already ratified the Convention to date. All of them have committed themselves to aiming to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at safe levels. The Secretariat of the UNFCCC is located in Germany.
"An overwhelming majority of countries has understood that the objective of the Framework Convention can only be reached by means of mandatory reduction commitments for greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, we need to be flexible about the implementation, in order to create incentives for innovations. This is exactly what the Kyoto Protocol provides for. Even though the USA have decided to opt out of the Kyoto process and are getting more and more isolated, they still have to comply with the requirements they have as a Party to the Convention", said Minister Trittin. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 121 states. Russia's ratification is vital for its entry into force. Within the context of the Kyoto Protocol, Germany has committed itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 21 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2012. To date, 19 per cent have already been reduced.