26 September 2003 10:13
Conference puts Russia`s Kyoto stance in spotlight
Russia's Arctic metals town of Norilsk is an ecological disaster, but its filth will be of minor concern to a Moscow conference on global warming where many delegates will urge Russia to back the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists at the international conference opening next Monday will focus on the treaty, which aims to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming, primarily carbon dioxide. Some of the 250,000 residents of Norilsk, where plants cannot live in air so foul it sticks to the back of the throat, think Russia should use the conference to mark a final break from Soviet disdain for the environment.
Aleko Gabuchiya, deputy director of a giant Norilsk copper plant, said he thought Russian adoption of Kyoto was inevitable.
"If the world is changing, then Russia has to change with it, and we as one of the world's biggest metals companies...must also change," he said.
Enviromentalists' attention will focus on the Kremlin, and whether it will finally ask Russia's normally docile parliament to approve the pact and bring it into force worldwide.
Under Kyoto's complex weighting system, countries that emit 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases must approve it before it can come into force.
Industrial towns like Norilsk helped account for Russia's 17 percent of global emissions when quotas were set in 1990 – although the post-Soviet decline of industry has since cut emissions.
The United States, the world's top polluter, has backed out of the pact, so Moscow's quota leaves it with the casting vote.
On Thursday, a minister once again backed the treaty in principle, but said there was no timetable for approval, dashing hopes that ratification was likely soon.
Scientists say the treaty would have little effect on the world's climate, but it could serve as a crucial test of global resolve to work together to help the environment.
"The Kyoto protocol is a first step, which is important politically and psychologically, but its effect on climate will be almost non-existent," said Yuri Izrael, director of Russia's Global Climate institute.
Many observers are looking to next week's conference for pointers on when Russia will ratify the pact.
Scientists from around the world will attend, along with a handful of environment ministers and Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to open the gathering.
A sign in favour of Kyoto from Putin would almost certainly be enough to ensure the State Duma lower house ratified it.
Russians have little to fear from the pact. Even in Norilsk, site of the world's biggest nickel producer, Russian firms will not be forced to buy expensive equipment to filter the noxious gases being pumped into the sky.
Post-Soviet economic meltdown has devastated Russian industry so severely that it emits far fewer greenhouse gases than allowed under the treaty. The pact allows it to sell the spare capacity to over-polluters.
"The Kyoto protocol will give us extra bargaining power to sell our pollution quota to nations with higher emission levels," said Norilsk's acting mayor Lev Kuznetsov. "This is extra money for us, and this is good."
[http://gazeta.ru/] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
