MOSCOW -- Russia's president has signed the Kyoto Protocol ensuring the global climate pact will take effect, Novosti reported Friday.
Putin had delayed signing the treaty until he gained European promises to support his bid for Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization.
The completion of Russia's ratification process, which began last month when Moscow's legislature passed an enabling bill, brings the protocol into effect more than seven years after the pact was adopted in December 1997 at a U.N. climate change conference in Kyoto, Japan.
The ratification by Russia, which accounted for 17.4 percent of Earth's carbon dioxide emissions in base year 1990, is essential for the protocol to enter into force.
The pact requires ratifications by 55 nations including industrialized countries accounting for at least 55 percent of emissions in 1990.
Japan and 124 other signatories to the protocol have ratified the pact.
