08 September 2003 22:03
Russia unlikely to sign Kyoto Protocol in 2003 - deputy minister
Moscow, 8 September: It will be hard for Russia to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas
emissions this year, because Russia has a lot of questions about how it would work in practice, Russian Deputy Economic
Development and Trade Ministry Mukhamed Tsikanov said on Monday [8 September].
The protocol is the first ever agreement that envisages using market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse-gases emissions.
Under the protocol, countries able to reduce carbon emissions below the quota levels will be able to sell parts of their
quotas to other countries, which fail to do so.
The protocol will only have an economic effect when it becomes clear how the quotas will be traded, and how
international cooperation on joint projects will be organized, Tsikanov added. Russia has already met all the
obligations stated in the protocol, while the other signatories have exceeded their quotas, he said. The protocol may be
ratified in 2004, if the countries agree on the mechanism, he said.
Earlier, Deputy Natural Resources Minister Kirill Yankov said that Russia might ratify it by the end of the year.
[passage omitted: background information]
[Prime-TASS news agency] |
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