Putin Signs Law Ratifying Kyoto Climate Protocol

MOSCOW, Russia, November 5, 2004 (ENS) - In the briefest possible terms, the Kremlin announced today that President Vladimir Putin had signed the federal law “on ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to the framework convention of the United Nations on climate change." The protocol will become legally binding on all participating countries 90 days after Russia notifies the United Nations of its ratification.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Kyoto Protocol into law today, ensuring that it will enter into force internationally. (Photo courtesy The Kremlin)

Russia will be obliged to hold its emission of six greenhouse gases to 1990 levels during the first commitment period 2008-2012. Other European countries must reduce their emissions an average of eight percent during that period.

After 2012, Russia will make another decision about whether or not it will continue to participate in the protocol.

Vsevolod Gavrilov, deputy director of the economic development and trade ministry's department for property and land relations and the economics of nature management, told the Russian news agency Novosti what the protocol will mean for Russia.

"In my opinion, it will do no harm. It depends on us whether it will benefit Russia or not," Gavrilov said.

In addition to reducing emissions, Russia must assess them and compile a register of industrial enterprises. "Surely, this will cost money," said Gavrilov, "but the formation of these institutions and this potential will be useful for Russia."

By contrast with the European Union, which is also bound by the protocol, Russia will not impose heavy fines on its industries for non-compliance, Gavrilov said.

A vodka factory in St. Petersburg, Russia (Photo courtesy Snued)

"When you burn down about half a ton of coal, you produce one ton of carbon dioxide," Gavrilov explained.

Instead, he said, Russia will ease industries into their Kyoto targets in two stages. At first, the government will support those industry operators who voluntarily restrict their greenhouse gas emissions. They will be rewarded with access to business that will allow them to develop low emissions projects.

"To make these tenders as transparent as possible, we are going to qualify the applicants by a single quantitative criterion and make the tenders online and real-time. We do not plan to impose fines for abstention from the program," Gavrilov said.

"When the first option is fully exhausted," he said, "a decision will be made whether it is viable to make the obligations binding and compulsory."

But Russia will not strongarm its industrial enterprises into compliance, the official said. Instead, he pledged to "consider and discuss the necessity of emission restrictions and, accordingly, liabilities for non-compliance, only in close contact with businesses, without any state unilateralism."

"It is in this manner that we would like to launch a civilized national ecological policy. We are contacting with business people on a day-to-day basis, and, as far as I know, none of them has revealed any fierce opposition," Gavrilov said. "Everyone is aware that this policy, if organized properly, is a friend, rather than a foe."

Executive Secretary Joke Waller-Hunter, who heads the Secretariat for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is pleased that Russia's ratification ensures that the protocol enters into force. She said it will "launch an exciting new phase in the global campaign to reduce the risks of climate change."

Climate change movers and shakers at the 9th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC December 2003 in Milan, Italy. From left: UNFCCC Executive Secretary Joke Waller-Hunter, Miklós Persányi, Minister of Environment and Water, who served as COP 9 president; and Klaus Toepfer, executive director, UN Environment Programme (Photo courtesy Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

The Protocol contains legally binding emissions targets for 36 industrialized countries. These countries are to reduce their collective emissions of six key greenhouse gases by at least five percent by 2008-2012, compared to 1990 levels.

This first five year target period is only a first step, Waller-Hunter, participating governments and environmentalists believe.

While developing countries do not now have specific emissions targets, they too are committed under the 1992 Climate Change Convention to taking measures to limit emissions; the protocol will open up new avenues for assisting them to do so, said Waller-Hunter.

Friends of the Earth International's vice-chair, Tony Juniper, said, "Despite the best efforts of the USA and some of its major corporations, the Kyoto Protocol lives. This is an historic moment for life on Earth and must pave the way for new agreements to reduce climate changing emissions."

Juniper called for "intense international pressure" to be placed on President George W. Bush and the United States "to finally acknowledge the scale of the threat we now face and to take action to deal with it."

When President Bush took office in January 2001, he declined to participate in the Kyoto Protocol process, saying it would be harmful to the U.S. economy. With about four percent of the world's population, the United States emits around 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas.

The next round of climate negotions will take place at the 10th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Buenos Aires, Argentina from December 6 to 17, 2004.