Japan ratifies Kyoto pact, to urge US to go green

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, a former environment minister who was involved in negotiating the pact, said: ‘‘I am deeply moved and pleased that Japan will become a party to the Kyoto protocol.’’

Under the protocol, industrialised nations must cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of five percent over the period 2008-2012, compared with 1990 levels.

Japan has pledged to cut its output by six percent. Environmentalists said Japan would have difficulty meeting its target, since the volume of emissions had risen since 1990.

Following the ratification at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Japan’s foreign and environment ministers will write to countries including Russia and the United States urging them also to ratify the treaty, an environment ministry official said.

Thirty-nine nations that have signed the treaty have yet to ratify it while the United States,

the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, has rejected it

altogether.

The pact would have required the United States to cut emissions by seven percent from 1990 levels, a condition the Bush administration argued would harm the United States economy.

In a United States government report issued on Friday, the administration acknowledged for the first time that US greenhouse gas emissions would increase significantly over the next two decades, mainly due to human activities which account for an increase in 43 percent between 2000 and 2020

‘‘Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface Air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise,’’ the report said.

That position put the administration at odds with its supporters in the United States Auto, oil

and electricity industries, who contend that more research is needed to determine if the changes are naturally occurring or caused by industry.