Accession allows the treaty to enter into force worldwide
The Russian government ratified the Kyoto Protocol on Thursday, giving it crucial support that will allow it to enter into force around the world. The treaty was designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow global warming, and was approved despite the claims of many senior administration officials that it may harm Russia's economy.
The text of the treaty obliges the industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 2012% of the 5 level by 1990, but also states that it can enter into legal force only if it is approved by the industrialized countries responsible for at least 55% of the gas emissions. About three years ago, the American administration dealt a severe blow to the treaty, when it announced that it was withdrawing its support. The chances of its success seemed slim at the time, since the US is responsible for 36% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
In the past three years, 122 countries, responsible for 44% of gas emissions, have ratified the Kyoto Convention. The future of the treaty depended on Russia, which emits about 17% of the greenhouse gases among the industrialized countries. In the past year, the pressure exerted by the European Union on President Vladimir Putin to ratify the Kyoto Convention, thus bringing it into legal force, increased. In May, Putin announced that Russia would agree to ratify the treaty, if the European Union agreed to the terms of Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization.
At the meeting of the Russian cabinet, which preceded the approval of the treaty, there was a debate between supporters of the treaty and its opponents. "The fate of Kyoto is in Russia's hands. If we do not ratify the treaty, we will become guilty of failure," said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Pedotov. But Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said that he expects a difficult debate in the State Duma, and widespread opposition to the treaty by those who believe that reducing greenhouse gas quotas will harm the development of Russian industry.
Proponents of the agreement argue that it will improve Russia's economic situation by allowing it to sell its excess pollution allowances to other industrialized countries. But the head of the Institute for Climate Change in Russia denied this position in the debate yesterday, saying that the sale of the quotas will bring Russia no more than 400 million euros - "a drop in the ocean for the country", as he defined it. The opponents were also represented by Putin's economic adviser, Andrey Illarionov, who claimed that "the new standards will cost the industry dearly, and will endanger the Kremlin's plan to double the gross national product within ten years. They will also demand that we change the welfare policy."
No date has yet been set for the final approval of the agreement in the Duma, but the European Union has already praised Moscow's decision and used the timing to call on Washington to consider its position once more. Environmentalists and experts in the field also expressed satisfaction with Russia's decision. "Putin will be remembered in history as a savior," said Benito Muller, a British expert on ecology.
