The Russian cabinet's 30 September endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) likely clears the way for the treaty's ratification by that country's parliament and for its entry into force. The protocol enters into force when not less than 55 Parties to the Convention, including industrialized countries (so called Annex I Parties) which accounted in total for at least 55 % of the total carbon dioxide emissions for 1990 from that group, officially have agreed to the treaty.