The Kyoto Protocol aimed at curbing industrial emissions of greenhouse gases will finally enter into force early Wednesday, seven years after its adoption at a U.N. conference in Kyoto in 1997, in a first attempt to control climate change.

The protocol adopted at the third Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change legally obliges industrialized countries to reduce their carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by an average of 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012.

Japan is required to reduce its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from the 1990 level.

However, the pact remains a small step, as it covers only a third of total emissions in the world since the United States, the largest emitter of such gases and which accounts for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, withdrew from it in 2001 after questioning the effectiveness of the protocol and citing adverse impact on the U.S. economy.

Japan is also expected to have difficulty achieving its target as its emission of such gases in fiscal 2003 that ended in March 2004 was up 8 percent from the 1990 level.

The ratification last November by Russia, which accounted for 17.4 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the base year 1990, paved the way for its coming into effect. The pact requires ratification by 55 nations including industrialized countries accounting for at least 55 percent of emissions in 1990.

The protocol had been ratified by 141 nations and regions as of Feb. 2 this year.

Given the expected limited impact of the pact, its supporters are already looking beyond it and have begun discussing post-Kyoto Protocol policies for the year 2013 and onward.

The key issues for the post-2012 steps will include how to win U.S. support for the new policies, and to reexamine the obligations and commitments to curb the greenhouse emissions of developing countries, such as China and India, which are experiencing high economic growth but exempted from the obligation by the pact, experts say.

The pact officially takes effect at midnight Tuesday in the Eastern time zone in the United States, which is 2 p.m. Wednesday Japan time.

In celebration of the protocol's coming into effect, a symposium will be held Wednesday evening in Kyoto, with the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Kenyan Deputy Environment Minister Wangari Maathai, giving a keynote speech.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will give congratulatory messages through a video conference system.

Source: Kyodo News