Pátek, 29. března 2024

Putin Undecided on Kyoto, Snubs UN Appeals

Putin Undecided on Kyoto, Snubs UN Appeals
MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin backed away this week from Russia\'s earlier pledge to swiftly ratify a key U.N. pact on curbing global warming - a plan that will collapse without its backing. Delegates at a World Climate Change Conference said it was too early to talk of the possible death of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol despite Moscow\'s long indecision. Putin even joked that a warmer climate might save Russians money on fur coats. Pressure mounted on Putin to push through the pact with French President Jacques Chirac saying future relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation depended on it. Putin told 940 delegates at the start of the five-day talks, to which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a message urging a Russian \"Yes,\" that Moscow was \"closely studying and examining this question\" of Kyoto. \"This is part of a complex of difficult and unclear problems. A decision will be taken when this work is finished,\" Putin said, giving no timetables. Under the pact\'s terms, Kyoto can only enter into force if Russia ratifies. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told an Earth Summit a year ago in Johannesburg that Moscow\'s parliament was expected to ratify Kyoto in the \"very near future.\" Russian officials have attached strings in recent weeks, including guarantees of economic benefits. Kyoto seeks to rein in emissions of gases like carbon dioxide from fossil fuels burned in factories and cars that are blamed for blanketing the planet and driving up temperatures, raising sea levels and causing heatwaves, floods, droughts and tornadoes. U.S. PULLOUT Russia will have no problem reaching emissions goals because of the collapse of its Soviet-era heavy industry. But a U.S. pullout from Kyoto in 2001 has undermined what might have been an $8.0 billion annual market for Russia, selling surplus emissions quotas abroad. And Russia is the world\'s number two oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia and prices could be hit by any shift toward renewable energies like solar or wind power. Kyoto has strong backing from the European Union, Russia\'s main trading partner. Annan, in a message to the conference, called Kyoto a \"vital first step in tackling global challenges of global warming\" and said that \"our children and grandchildren\" would not understand inaction now. \"I join people throughout the world in eagerly awaiting ratification by the Russian Federation, which will bring the protocol into force and further galvanise global action,\" he said. In a letter to Putin, Chirac said the pact \"would underline Russia\'s determination to accept all the responsibilities of a large modern country toward future generations.\" It would give the partnership between the Russian Federation and the EU \"greater legitimacy\" in the fields of energy and environmental protection, he added. \"I therefore see in it an essential element to the constitution of the common economic area we decided to create in St Petersburg,\" Chirac said, referring to plans for a common European economic space. \"SPEND LESS ON FUR COATS\" Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change which oversees Kyoto, told Putin she had hoped Russia would set a date for ratification. After criticisms of foot-dragging, Putin told delegates in unprepared remarks: \"People say we are a northern country and a temperature 2-3 degrees warmer would not be scary, maybe it would be good. \"You would have to spend less money on fur coats and other warm things,\" he said, adding that farm output would rise. But he also said that Russia realized that climate change would cause damage from droughts to floods around the world. Moscow\'s overall decision would take account of \"social, economic and ecological\" disruptions, he said. Kyoto aims to cut the emissions of greenhouse gases by developed nations by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 and will only take force after states accounting for 55 percent of emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, have ratified the pact. So far, nations representing 44 percent of emissions have ratified but Moscow\'s 17 percent gives it a veto. The United States had a 36 percent share but pulled out, arguing Kyoto was too costly and wrongly excluded developing nations. Story by Alister Doyle and Oliver Bullough REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Sdílet článek na sociálních sítích

Partneři

Asekol - zpětný odběr vysloužilého elektrozařízení
Ekolamp - zpětný odběr světelných zdrojů
ELEKTROWIN - kolektivní systém svetelné zdroje, elektronická zařízení
EKO-KOM - systém sběru a recyklace obalových odpadů
INISOFT - software pro odpady a životní prostředí
ELKOPLAST CZ, s.r.o. - česká rodinná výrobní společnost která působí především v oblasti odpadového hospodářství a hospodaření s vodou
NEVAJGLUJ a.s. - kolektivní systém pro plnění povinností pro tabákové výrobky s filtry a filtry uváděné na trh pro použití v kombinaci s tabákovými výrobky
E.ON Energy Globe oceňuje projekty a nápady, které pomáhají šetřit přírodu a energii
Ukliďme Česko - dobrovolnické úklidy
Kam s ním? - snadné a rychlé vyhledání míst ve vašem okolí, kde se můžete legálně zbavit nechtěných věcí a odpadů