Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 29, 2005

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED IN A NEW DECEMBER 1, 2005 ARTICLE ON THE SAME TOPIC.
THE TWO ARTICLES SHOULD BE LOOKED AT IN Sequence BECAUSE THERE IS ALSO AN UPDATED INTERPRETATION.

When entering the plenary hall at the COP11/MOP1 you see an array of place names - the big majority in black and a small number in white. For instance the first row has in the middle a shining “Australie” and the second row, on the left a shining “Etats-Unis”. These are two examples of governments that did not approve the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC. To be exact - the front seating in the hall belongs to the states that approved the “Entry into force”of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Those that have a black name tag have also approved, accepted, accessed to, or ratified the Kyoto Protocol to above convention - those that were allotted a white flashing name tag are the black holes that did not approve, accept, accessed to, or ratified the KP. I looked over the room and found that 29 States are flashing the bright white signs. These are in accordance to their French names as follows:

Afghanistan, Angola, Australie, Bahrein, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Comores, Congo, Cote-d’Ivoire, Croatie, Etats-Unis (that is the US), Gabon, Guinee-Bissau, Jamahiriya-Arabe-Libyenne (that is Lybia), Kazakhstan, Monaco, Republique-Centreafricaine (that is the Central African Republic), Republique-Populaire-Democratique-de-Coree (that is North Korea), Saint-Marin, Saint-Kitts-et-Navis, Serbie-et-Montenegro, Sierra-Leone, Singapour, Suriname, Swaziland, Tadjikistan, Tchad (that is Chad), Tonga, Turquie (that is Turkey), and Zambie (that is Zambia).

In a second round of the alphabet follow six more names of entities that did not even sign the UNFCCC.
Of these five entities have white name tags and one entity has a black name tag. The five entities that have white name tags are: Andorre, Brunei-Darussalam, Iraq, Saint-Siege (that is the Vatican or the Holy See), Somalie, and Timor-Leste. The black name tag belongs to Palestine which is not a member state of the UN - only an observer at the UN. As such, as much as one may think it admirable for having them ratify the KP, one must nevertheless wonder at a procedure where a non-state that is not part of a UN convention can nevertheless be seated as belonging to a Protocol that is part of that convention.
Quite a feat - isn’t it?

Further, the Vatican, though having jurisdiction over territory, is nevertheless not a member of the UN and also only an observer at the UN. The Vatican is neither a member to the Convention nor a member to the Protocol and that is perfectly fine.

Iraq and Somalia are member states at the UN but are failed states - so their position is obvious.
Andorra’s six villages did not deem it worthwhile, seemingly, to participate in this exercise and Brunei-Darussalam Sultanate probably neither. This leaves us with Timor-Leste who nevertheless had here someone filling their seat. The Vatican was even better - they had three males and one female - all in black garb - sitting at the opening session. The Holy See, though not members of the UN, make nevertheless always use for an active participation of their observer status.

I did these listings because I wanted to show the United States in the midst of its allies, and also because I realized that the UN has difficulty keeping count of figures of membership.

The US partners in non-acceptance of the KP are thus, among others, Iraq, Somalia, Lybia, and North Korea, as well as Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan and Turkey, not just Australia.

In what concerns numbers, let us look at the official UN docomentation:

The UN lists the number of member states as 191. This obviously does not include the Holy See, Palestine, or the European Union.

The UNFCCC - 25 November 2005 document on the Status of ratification of the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol”, lists 189 entities that include the Holy See and the European Union. That same list counts the Europen Union as a ratifier - so they should have actually only 188 names. Then, noting that Andorra, Brunei Darussalam, Iraq, and Somalia appear on the list as non-members of the UNFCCC, and that is fine,
but the problem arises when trying to do the math, 188 + 4 is 192 rather then 191. Who has here difficulty in keeping his figures streight?

Further, looking now to those that have allowed the KP to go into force by November 25, 2005 - the document lists the figure as 157. Interesting to note that four States signed the KP but refused ratification. These are Australia, Kazahstan, Monaco and the US.

We found before that 29 states signed the Convention but did not sign the Protocol; five further UN member states did not participate in the Convention and thus do not participate in the Protocol.
These figures 157+29+5=191 indeed and this is fine. The only question in this exercise is thus the ratification by Palestine which seems to have been accepted by the UNFCCC maintenance department but is obviously not included in the figures of the official document.

Politics may seem a wonderful mathematical game.

N.B. PLEASE SEE ALSO THE DECEMBER 1, 2005 ARTICLE BECAUSE THE FIGURE 29 IN THE LAST
PARAGRAPH WAS CHANGED TO 35 AND THUS THE INTERPRETATION IS INCORRECT HERE.