China has approved the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Premier Zhu Rongji announced in Johannesburg yesterday.

"China has completed the domestic procedure for the approval of the Kyoto Protocol with a view to taking an active part in multilateral environmental cooperation," Zhu told the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in the South African city.

Sources with the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Ambassador Wang Yingfan, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, deposited the instrument of approval of the Kyoto Protocol with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last Friday.

A ministry press release said: "The approval manifests China's positive stance towards international environmental cooperation and world sustainable development."

The Kyoto Protocol on climate change stipulates that developed countries should cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent compared to the level of 1990 during the 2008-12 period. The European Union countries agreed to a reduction of 8 percent, the United States to 7 percent and Japan to 6 percent.

The text of the protocol was adopted on December 11, 1997 and was open for signature from March 16, 1998 to March 15, 1999. China signed it on May 29, 1998.

However, the Kyoto Protocol has yet to enter into force because the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the 90 signatory parties that have so far ratified or approved the document accounts less than the required 55 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases, withdrew from the protocol last year, drawing criticism from around the world.

(China Daily September 4, 2002)