Russian Chairman of the committee on environment under the State Duma Vladimir Grachyov said Friday that Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol will require the adoption of several new federal laws.

"We'll have to draw lawbills on state regulation of emissions and absorption of greenhouse gases on the territory of Russia and on the property right on volumes of reduced emissions," said Grachyov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.

He noted "It's also necessary to think about bills on creating a market of quotas for greenhouse emissions and the setting up of a national monitoring system."

According to Grachyov, work has already begun to form a legal underpinning for the coordination of economic and environmental interests.

The committee on environment supports ratification and believesthat the document should be regarded as the first step toward the solution of global warming.

The Kyoto Protocol, signed by 159 countries in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997, obliges industrialized signatory countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 2008-2012 as compared with their 1990 levels.

The protocol suffered a crippling blow in March 2001 when the United States walked away, stripping the Protocol of the world's biggest polluter and carbon-market player.

Under a complex weighing system, the treaty cannot come into force until Russia, responsible for 17 percent of the world's dioxide emissions, ratifies the deal.

Duma's ratification is essential for pushing the number of industrialized signatories over a key threshold to turn the draft deal into an international treaty.

Duma is the lower house of Russian parliament.

Source: Xinhua