The House of Representatives adopted a resolution at a plenary session Thursday calling for international cooperation on ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
The House of Councilors had the previous day unanimously adopted a similar resolution urging the United States to honor its commitment to the pact.
U.S. President George W. Bush has said he will ditch the agreement because it exempts developing countries from compliance and would hurt the U.S. economy.
The Lower House resolution urges the U.S. to continue participating in protocol negotiations and emphasizes that Japan should quickly ratify the accord and exercise leadership in the international community to put the Kyoto Protocol into effect by 2002.
The protocol, negotiated and signed in Kyoto in December 1997, requires industrialized countries to limit emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Scientists believe the gases are causing significant changes to the Earth's climate.
The sixth Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention in The Hague in November failed to reach agreement after Japan, the U.S. and the European Union split over the use of forest absorption in meeting reduction targets.
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