coming under renewed pressure to sign the Kyoto Protocol. That's the agreement to limit the industrial pollutants that are believed to contribute to global warming. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 can only come into force when 55 percent of countries have signed up to it. With United States refusing to sign, ratification by Russia is crucial to the treaty's success. From Moscow our environment correspondent Tim Hersch reports.
President Putin himself called this conference in his own capital to discuss the latest signs of climate change and it had been thought he might use the opportunity to announce that his government was finally prepared to sign up to Kyoto, but comments from senior Kremlin officials have played down expectations, saying Russia wanted firm guarantees of foreign investment in clean technology before pressing ahead with ratification. The European Union and UN bodies have been putting pressure on Mr. Putin to end the delays so that international action against global warming could finally start six years after the Kyoto agreement was signed.
Task 9
The United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on children beginning September 19th. The meeting will bring together government leaders, child activists, non-governmental organizations and many young people. The three-day gathering will give officials a valuable chance to change how the world thinks about children.
Eleven years ago, the UN held a similar meeting called the \that conference, seventy-one heads of state and government signed a treaty aimed at improving the lives of children around the world. Efforts to reach the goals established in that treaty have made the rights of children an important issue.
The UN agency for children, UNICEF, is supporting the special session. Officials are expected to produce a plan of action to guarantee that three important goals are reached. The goals are the best possible start in life for all children, a good education for all children and the chance for all children to become an important part of their communities. The session will also examine progress made since the 1990 World Summit for Children.
Former South African President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela is working toward these goals. He is joined by his wife Graca Machel who is an activist for children. They are calling on community, business and government leaders to form an international movement aimed at improving the world for young people.
The movement is hoping to build international support for a public campaign to help children. Several world leaders have joined the movement. Movie stars, professional sports teams, and the creators of children's television programs and books also have joined the movement.
The group's public campaign lists ten ways to improve the lives of young people. These include educating children, protecting them from war and fighting the disease AIDS. UNICEF officials say the goal of the movement is for people around the world to get involved, take action and work for change. They say that for every child who comes into the world, the hopes and dreams of the
human race are reborn.
Task 10
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says hunger kills millions of people each year—especially children. The UN organization says millions more people will die unless more money is invested to fight against hunger.
This is based on the results of a new UN study called \2002\are children younger than age five. Researchers also found that the number of starving people is growing in some parts of the world.
The report says that about eight hundred and forty million people around the world are not getting enough food to eat. Ninety-five percent of these people are in developing countries.