The world looks to end the menace of global warming as the Kyoto Protocol comes into force.
Seven years after the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon some 141 countries responsible for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions have pledged to cut these emissions by 5.2% by 2012.
Kyoto, in Japan, is hosting the main ceremony to mark the occasion.
The treaty was boosted by a late decision from Russia to ratify the agreement in November last year.
Russia's assistance was vital in ensuring that the treaty achieved the support of nations responsible for producing at least 55% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Each country has been set its own individual targets according to its pollution levels.
Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi hailed the treaty and urged non-signatories such as India, China and the US to join.
Global warming remains one of the biggest issues for the environment today.
The Kyoto Protocol is a welcome if as yet not entirely adequate weapon to halt rising greenhouse emissions.
Without the US, the biggest producer of such emissions, it may be hard for the treaty to make a big positive impact on the environment.
Nevertheless, environmentalists need not be too disheartened as the treaty represents an important symbolic turning point for the fight against global warming - one that will undoubtedly lead to other even more significant efforts being made later in the future.
Believe it or not the world does indeed have a record of success at combatting environmental dangers, most notably the Montreal Protocol of 1987 that effectively protected our ozone layer from the destructive effects of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons).
There are now 168 nations party to that accord up from an original 25.
The world may be a little slow to react to global dangers but it gets there in and before the end.
Andrew Zilouf
Kyoto Protocol Fires Up
The battle against global warming takes a new step with the launch of the Kyoto Protocol.
