PREMIER Zhu Rongji pledged yesterday that China would, as always, take the road of sustainable development and announced his government had ratified the climate-change Kyoto Protocol.

　China was an important force for cooperation in the international environment, Zhu told world leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.Zhu said he believed the ongoing summit would usher in better implementation of the sustainable growth strategy in all countries.

　“We are deeply aware of the responsibilities on our shoulders,” he said.“We are destined to have an even better future for China and for our entire world,” said the premier.Thanks to 10 years of hard work, China had made great headway in sustainable development, Zhu said.China’s GDP had increased by 158 percent in the past decade or so, he said.In recent years, China had stepped up its financial input in the environment, Zhu said.

　From 1998 to 2002, a total of 580 billion yuan (US$69.88 billion) was invested in environmental protection and the preservation of the eco-system, accounting for 1.29 percent of the country’s GDP in that period and 1.8 times the combined investment in this area from 1950 to 1997, the premier said.By 2005, ecological degradation would be halted and the total discharge of major pollutants would drop by 10 percent compared with the year 2000.

　　By 2005, ecological degradation would, on the whole, be halted and the total discharge of major pollutants would drop by 10 percent compared with the year 2000.

　　By 2010, China's GDP would double that of 2000, he said.

　　Zhu said after the Rio Earth Summit 10 years ago, China had acceded to a series of international conventions and completed the domestic procedure for the approval of the Kyoto Protocol.

　　Earlier yesterday, Zhu announced in a press release that China had approved the protocol.

　　As Japan, the European Union and its member states had ratified or approved the protocol, he said, China hoped other developed countries would ratify or approve the protocol as soon as possible to enable it to take effect this year.

　　The protocol, agreed to in the Japanese city of Kyoto in 1997, was the cornerstone of efforts to curb greenhouse-gas pollution blamed for climate changes.

　　The Kyoto Protocol requires rich industrialized countries to trim the output of carbon-based gases by a deadline of 2008-12.

　　The United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases, abandoned the protocol in March last year.

　　In his speech, Zhu said the international community must adopt a correct attitude towards the relationship between the environment and development.

　　The premier told world leaders that the challenges facing the international community were evidently on the increase, rather than decrease.

　　The three-day high-level segment of the summit, which followed seven days of meetings among thousands of delegates, features five one-minute presentations from 187 states, 103 of them at the level of head of state or government, on eradicating poverty and preserving the earth's environment.

　　It is due to wind up today with the approval of a political declaration along with the Plan of Implementation, which is non-binding but will set the environmental agenda for the next 10 years.

　　(SD-Xinhua)