ANKARA (AFP) – Turkey’s environment minister said Friday he has recommended that the government sign the Kyoto Protocol on fighting global warming, the Anatolia news agency reported.
“I sent the foreign ministry a letter saying that joining the Kyoto Protocol will be appropriate,” Environment Minister Veysel Eroglu was quoted as saying.
“This decision will go to the government, the prime minister will evaluate it and then submit it to parliament” for approval.
Eroglu said he would meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to discuss the issue, without giving a timeline on when Turkey may sign the protocol.
Ankara has earlier said it may join in 2015 at the earliest as it still needs to complete its industrialisation and is facing a giant bill to ensure proper environmental protection.
Turkey is already under pressure from the European Union, which it is seeking to join, to drastically improve environmental standards.
The protocol requires signatory countries to reduce or stabilise their emissions of six “greenhouse” gases blamed for heating up the planet, the principal of which is carbon dioxide.
