Iraq ratifies Kyoto Protocol on climate change

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq has formally ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a government statement seen by AFP on Saturday.

"The presidential council ratified in its session on January 23 a law according to which the Republic of Iraq will join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol," the statement said.

The Kyoto Protocol legally commits industrialised countries which have signed and ratified it to trim their output of six carbon gases seen as being responsible for global warming.

Its framework was adopted on December 12, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, by 159 states that are members of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j36Xc3cFAC5MxVU1kzImFlZPv6Mw

Normally I'm happy when another country ratifies Kyoto, because it's yet another brick in the wall of isolation that's being built around US climate policy. In this case, though, it strikes me as the most forlorn and threadbare of window dressings. Iraq's priorities seem sadly out of whack here.