The Nepali government has already given approval in principle to the Kyoto
Protocol and is preparing to ratify it next month, a government official said
Saturday.
"Homework is being done with the objective of ratifying the protocol by Feb.
25," Minister for Population and Environment Bachaspati Devkota told reporters.
The people's standard of living can be raised if the use of products that
give out green-house gases could be reduced through the use of alternative
energy sources such as solar energy, bio-gas, wind and hydro-electricity,
Devkota said.
"A country like Nepal can earn a decent foreign currency through the carbon
trade after signing the protocol," he added.
The Nepali parliament passed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The protocol, which
aims to control the "greenhouse" gas emissions that cause global warming,
imposes cuts in emissions of the polluting gases by 5.2 percent from the level
of 1990 by 2010 for most industrialized countries.