Russia
Takes One More Step
Towards Kyoto Ratification
By Andrew Osborn
23 October, 2004
The
Independent
Environmentalists
hailed Russia as the world's ecological saviour yesterday after the
Russian parliament made good on President Vladimir Putin's promise to
endorse the Kyoto climate change pact. Yesterday's vote will see the
UN treaty take effect early next year.
The world's industrialised
countries (with the exception of America, the largest polluter) will
have to cut their collective emissions of six greenhouse gases to 5.2
per cent below 1990 levels in eight years or face stiff penalties and
global humiliation.
Russian MPs voted
in favour of ratification by 334 to 73, taking their lead from Mr Putin,
whose cabinet approved the pact last month. Calling the decision "the
moment in history when humanity faced up to its responsibility,"
Greenpeace's climate policy adviser, Steve Sawyer, praised Russia's
environmental credentials. "We'll toast the Duma [Russian parliament]
with vodka tonight," he said.
Vladimir Grachev,
chairman of the Duma's environmental committee, told the lower house
that it was a proud moment for Russia. "By ratifying the Kyoto
protocol, Russia is strengthening its international authority and becoming
an ecological leader," he said.
Klaus Toepfer, executive
director of the UN Environment Programme, said the decision was a milestone
that "will concentrate the efforts of governments, business and
industry on meeting the Kyoto targets and concentrate efforts on how
we can deliver even deeper cuts".
France also hailed
the Russian decision. It was an historic step, Serge Lepeltier, theFrench
ecology minister. said. It was a "truly decisive event in the struggle
against the leading environmental threat to the planet which is climate
change."
Once it is approved
by Russia's upper house and President Vladimir Putin which is
all but assured the pact will have been ratified by the necessary
55 countries that accounted for at least 55 per cent of global emissions
in 1990.
Russia's upper house
still has to ratify the pact and Mr Putin sign it into law, but both
are seen as being merely procedural. Yesterday's vote was billed as
the one that counted.
Mr Putin signalled
that Russia would sign on the dotted line in May, making it clear that
EU support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
had been influential. "We support the Kyoto process," he said
at the time. "The fact that the EU has met us halfway in negotiations
on the WTO could not but have helped Moscow's positive attitude to the
question of ratifying the Kyoto protocol."
Mr Putin decided
to back the pact in the face of often fierce domestic opposition. Two
reports one by the country's academy of sciences and another by
a senior policy adviser recommended he reject because it would
cause irreparable damage to Russia's economy. Andrei Illarionov, an
adviser to Mr Putin on economic matters, was particularly negative,
angering Jewish groups by likening it to a "global Auschwitz",
whose main purpose was to stifle economic growth.
The importance of
Russia's ratification cannot be overstated. With America's continued
refusal to ratify Kyoto Russia, responsible for 17 per cent of the world's
greenhouse gas emissions, essentially had the casting vote. To enter
into force the pact needed to be ratified by developed countries responsible
for 55 per cent of emissions. That figure was 44 per cent before Russia
came on board; now it is 61.
Greenpeace warned
against complacency, calling for new global warming talks, greater lobbying
of America over the issue and for governments to go beyond Kyoto and
make even deeper cuts in emissions. "We now need to roll up our
sleeves and work to build on the Kyoto protocol to ensure that the industrial
revolution of the 20th century will be followed by a clean energy revolution
of equal magnitude for the 21st century," Stephen Tindale, the
organisation's executive director, said.