MOSCOW, Sept. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- The Russian cabinet on Thursday approved the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, a step that may bring the global warming treaty into force after parliament endorsement.

    The cabinet has sent the pact on reducing the emission of greenhouse gases to the State Duma, or lower house of Russian parliament, for ratification.

    Ministries and agencies are required to work out a comprehensive plan of actions aimed at meeting the treaty's obligations in three months before Duma reviews the pact, the Interfax news agency reported.

    Signed by 159 countries in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997, the pact obliges industrialized signatory countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the carbon-based pollution that is a by-product of burning fossil fuels and is blamed for driving climate change, by 2008-2012 as compared with their 1990 levels.

    The protocol suffered a crippling blow in March 2001 when the United States walked away, stripping the Protocol of the world's biggest polluter and carbon-market player.

    Under a complex weighing system, the treaty cannot come into force until Russia, responsible for 17 percent of the world's dioxide emissions, ratifies the deal.

    Russia has for years vacillated on whether to approve the pact.Opponents to the protocol insisted that joining the pact would baffle Russia's economic growth and make President Vladimir Putin's goal of doubling gross domestic product (GDP) in a decade unattainable.

    Duma's ratification is essential for pushing the number of industrialized signatories over a key threshold that will turn thedraft deal into an international treaty.

    Russian presidential economic aide Andrei Illarionov said Thursday at a cabinet session that the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol will entail serious negative consequences for Russia bothin the short term and in the long run, Interfax reported.

    The ratification is a political decision, and not a one that "we are making with pleasure," said Illarionov.

    Illarionov, an outspoken critic of the Kyoto Protocol, warned that the ratification may lead to the loss of one trillion dollars for the country's GDP by 2012, calling for measures to minimize the negative consequences.

    Yuri Izrael, director of the Institute of Climate Change and Environment, and Gennady Mesyats, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Science, believed that there were no scientific justifications to approve the treaty.

    However, Alexander Bedritsky, head of the Federal Service of Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring, pointed out that ratifying the protocol will not hurt Russia if the country introduces a reasonable strategy of meeting the obligations.

    "Russia has the same chances of winning or losing at a later stage, depending on which strategy of implementing the protocol itchooses," Interfax quoted him as saying.

    Believing that Russia is capable of meeting the obligations under current scientific programs on reducing emission of carbon dioxide, Bedritsky said Russia may even win if it sells its emission quotas.

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov noted that the refusal to ratify the pact would result in "both political and economic expenses" for Russia.

    Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said that lawmakers will discuss over whether or not it is expedient for the country to ratify the document. Enditem