Statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Canada's Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

December 18, 2002

The Government of Japan welcomes the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by Canada, which deposited the instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of the United Nations on December 17 (local time). Japan will continue to cooperate with Canada at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP).
As the chair of the Third Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 3) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Kyoto in 1997, Japan has contributed to the formulation of the Protocol, and has actively participated in the negotiations regarding the details of the implementation of the Protocol to reach agreement for the prevention of global warming. Given the concerns about rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, it is an extremely significant first step in strengthening actions against global warming that each country should conclude and implement the Protocol. Japan will continue to call on States to conclude the Protocol with the aim of promptly bringing it into force.
To ensure the effectiveness of actions against global warming, it is vital that all countries should strive for the reduction of greenhouse gases. The Government of Japan will do its utmost to establish a common rule, in which all countries including the United States and the developing countries will participate, and strongly hopes that other countries will participate constructively in the negotiations along with Japan in order to prevent global warming.

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