Countries which ratified the kyoto protocol

Niue Upon signature: Declaration: "The Government of Niue declares its understanding that ratification of the Kyoto Protocol shall in no way constitute a renunciation of any rights under international law concerning state responsibility for the adverse effects of climate change and that no provisions in the Protocol can be interpreted as derogating from the principles of general international law.

Russian Federation. Russian Federation Statement: The Russian Federation proceeds from the assumption that the commitments of the Russian Federation under the Protocol will have serious consequences for its social and economic development. Syrian Arab Republic.

Syrian Arab Republic Declaration: The accession of the Syrian Arab Republic to this Protocol shall in no way imply its recognition of Israel or entail its entry into any dealings with Israel in the matters governed by the provisions thereof. End Note. On 2 January in respect of Gibraltar. Signatories : Certified true copy United Nations, Treaty Series , vol. Close Window. Declarations and Reservations Unless otherwise indicated, the declarations and reservations were made upon ratification, accession, acceptance or approval.

Cook Islands Cook Islands Upon signature: Declaration: The Government of the Cook Islands declares its understanding that signature and subsequent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol shall in no way constitute a renunciation of any rights under international law concerning State responsibility for the adverse effects of climate change and that no provision in the Protocol can be interpreted as derogating from principles of general international law.

Ireland Ireland Upon signature: Declaration: "The European Community and the Member States, including Ireland, will fulfil their respective commitments under article 3, paragraph 1, of the Protocol in accordance with the provisions of article 4. Kiribati Kiribati Declaration: "The Government of the Republic of Kiribati declares its understanding that accession to the Kyoto Protocol shall in no way constitute a renunciation of any rights under international law concerning State responsibility for the adverse effects of the climate change and that no provision in the Protocol can be interpreted as derogating from principles of general international law.

Niue Niue Upon signature: Declaration: "The Government of Niue declares its understanding that ratification of the Kyoto Protocol shall in no way constitute a renunciation of any rights under international law concerning state responsibility for the adverse effects of climate change and that no provisions in the Protocol can be interpreted as derogating from the principles of general international law.

Russian Federation Russian Federation Statement: The Russian Federation proceeds from the assumption that the commitments of the Russian Federation under the Protocol will have serious consequences for its social and economic development. Syrian Arab Republic Syrian Arab Republic Declaration: The accession of the Syrian Arab Republic to this Protocol shall in no way imply its recognition of Israel or entail its entry into any dealings with Israel in the matters governed by the provisions thereof.

When Parties agreed to the Doha Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol , they also implicitly committed to follow through and bring them into force, through ratification. As of this writing, Kyoto Parties have ratified the Doha Amendments, of the required to bring it into force. So we have three weeks to achieve the final four ratifications. There are more than 50 candidate countries who could be vying for the honour of putting it over the top.

This is about more than just tying up loose ends, and more than avoiding an embarrassing gap in the global climate regime because not enough countries could be bothered to push their ratifications through. It is also about demonstrating that they take seriously the pre period and its commitments that end this year. And it is about putting the Paris regime on solid foundations.

The Kyoto Protocol is from an era when it was possible to imagine using the full force of international law and binding global regimes to address pressing global problems. Under the Climate Convention and Kyoto, those parties with the greatest responsibility for causing the problem and capacity for action, represented at the time by the developed countries listed in Annex 1 of the Convention, would adopt binding quantitative emissions reduction commitments. At the conclusion of the meeting in Lyon, it was reported that language on aspects of some issues had been agreed upon, but that the negotiating text had been expanded to some pages, much of it "bracketed.

Thus, though there was negotiating text on most issues, disagreements remained on most key issues. Observers reported that political positions remained entrenched and little movement toward compromise appeared evident in Lyon.

The end result was that many participants felt doubtful that many of the key issues could be completely resolved in November, , at COP These included major controversy over the United States' proposal to allow credit for carbon "sinks" in forests and agricultural lands, satisfying a major proportion of the U. In the final hours of COP-6, despite some compromises agreed between the United States and some EU countries, the EU countries as a whole, reportedly led by Denmark and Germany, rejected the compromise positions, and the talks in The Hague collapsed.

Discussions between the EU and the "Umbrella group" that includes the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia, were held in Ottawa, Canada, during the week of December 4, , in order to try and salvage some of the agreement reached at the end of the talks in The Hague. However, the U. At the end of , based on discussions at The Hague and in Ottawa, the issues particularly in contention were as follows:. Bush Administration Policy. Bush took office, and announced his Administration would carry out a cabinet-level review of climate policy.

However, the Bush Administration announced in late March that it would not be interested in continuing discussion on the Kyoto Protocol, which was characterized as "dead" in terms of U. The cabinet-level review of U. The EU nations and others, such as Japan, expressed deep concern and dismay at this new U.

This effort was reported as having been "rebuffed. President Bush made a policy statement in mid-June, , resulting from the continuing cabinet-level review of climate change options, in which he confirmed the U. President Bush also outlined a U. During his mid-June trip to Europe, President Bush discussed climate policy with European heads of state and met strong opposition to the U. The outcome was that Europe and the United States would "agree to disagree" on climate.

The Europeans announced they would proceed with ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, without the United States if necessary. President Bush indicated that the United States would continue to participate in international meetings on climate change, but would not negotiate on Kyoto Protocol issues.

The other parties reached agreement on the key political issues and announced that the developed countries would move toward ratification of the Kyoto Protocol without the United States. When the COP-6 negotiations resumed July , , in Bonn, Germany, little progress had been made on resolving the differences that had produced an impasse in The Hague.

However, this meeting took place after President George Bush had rejected the Kyoto Protocol in March; as a result, the United States delegation to this meeting declined to participate in the negotiations related to the Protocol and chose to act as observers at that meeting.

As the other parties negotiated the key issues, agreement was reached on most of the major political issues, to the surprise of most observers given the low level of expectations that preceded the meeting.

The agreements included:. A number of operational details attendant upon these decisions remained to be negotiated and agreed upon, and these were the major issues of the COP-7 meeting that followed. At the COP-7 meeting in Marrakech, Morocco October November 10, , negotiators in effect completed the work of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, finalizing most of the operational details and setting the stage for nations to ratify the Protocol.

The United States delegation continued to act as observers, declining to participate in active negotiations. The main decisions at COP-7 included operational rules for international emissions trading among parties to the Protocol and for the CDM and joint implementation; a compliance regime that outlines consequences for failure to meet emissions targets but defers to the parties to the Protocol after it is in force to decide whether these consequences are legally binding; accounting procedures for the flexibility mechanisms; and a decision to consider at COP-8 how to achieve to a review of the adequacy of commitments that might move toward discussions of future developing country commitments.

Other parties reiterated their hope that the United States would re-engage with the international cooperation efforts under the Protocol, but also their decision to seek ratification by their governments and the Protocol's entry into force by the WSSD in , as noted above.

This will be concurrent meetings of the 11th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol; it is expected that discussion at this meeting will focus on key issues involved in "next steps," including what might be outlined as steps to be taken by developing countries. It appears likely that this discussion will be controversial among the parties, and that a key consideration will be the question of how greenhouse gas emissions can be addressed without posing obstacles for economic development in developing countries.

Disengagement from the Kyoto Protocol remains U. On February 14, , President Bush announced a U. Greenhouse gas intensity measures the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic output and has been declining in the United States over the past several years.

The Administration stated that the goal, to be met through voluntary action, is to achieve efficiency improvements that would reduce the metric tons of emissions per million dollars of gross domestic product GDP to in The plan notes that "if, in , we find that we are not on track toward meeting our goal, and sound science justifies further policy action, the United States will respond with additional measures that may include a broad, market-based program" and other incentives and voluntary measures to accelerate technology development.

In addition, the plan directs the Secretary of Energy in consultation with other key agencies, to "substantially improve the emission reduction registry" to upgrade the voluntary emission reduction program under section b of the Energy Policy Act, to bring about enhanced measurement accuracy, reliability, and verifiability.

Domestic policies such as tax incentives for renewable energy and new technology, development of fuel-efficient vehicles and cleaner fuels, and carbon sequestration were also proposed, along with several international bilateral initiatives and relatively modest increases in foreign assistance. Some observers praised the plan for taking a practical, conservative approach to government action and for relying on voluntary measures. Critics observed that voluntary approaches by themselves have not historically often been effective and noted that the reductions in energy intensity are very little different from current trends and would allow for significant increases in over-all greenhouse gas emissions rather than reductions.

Ratification Issues.