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Russia Undecided on Kyoto, Putin Tells Climate Meet
Arab News, Agence France Presse
MOSCOW, 30 September 2003 — Russia has yet to decide whether it will ratify the Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gases, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday at the opening of an international conference on climate change in Moscow.
Kyoto supporters had been hoping to convince Russia, whose agreement is necessary to bring Kyoto into force, to ratify the 1997 treaty during the World Conference on Climate Change that Moscow is organizing.
“The Russian government is meticulously examining this question and is studying all of the difficult problems associated with it,” Putin said as he opened the five-day conference.
“The decision will be taken at the end of this work and in conformity with Russia’s national interests,” he told the gathering of some 1,200 experts from 43 countries.
Putin said that “restrictions should not be enacted that would restrict economic growth and social development.”
In the days before the event, Russian and foreign experts said that Moscow would make its decision on the Kyoto treaty on economic and political criteria, rather than purely ecological considerations.
An official in the presidential administration said last week that Russia would only ratify Kyoto if it received firm guarantees on investment and on the sale of emission rights. European officials have already ruled out such a prospect as unrealistic.
The Kyoto protocol, signed in 1997, provides for a worldwide reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases held responsible for global warming, notably carbon dioxide.
To come into force it requires the ratification of countries representing at least 55 percent of the global total of carbon dioxide emissions.
With the United States refusing to ratify the treaty, Russia’s signature is needed to pass the threshold.
Meanwhile, Putin’s popularity remains high, with 75 percent of his countrymen approving of his performance, said a poll published yesterday.
The poll by the VTsIOM-A institute found 22 percent of those questioned were not satisfied with the job Putin was doing.
The numbers were virtually unchanged since August, when a poll found 74 percent approving and 23 percent disapproving of Putin’s performance.
Some 44 percent of Russians said they trusted the Russian leader and 21 percent said they did not trust any Russian politician.
Putin faces reelection in March and although he has not yet said whether he will run, he is expected to easily win the poll.
The main pro-Putin political party in the country, United Russia, has pulled ahead of the opposition Communists in popularity, the same poll found.
Some 28 percent of Russians said they would vote for United Russia, compared with 23 percent who would vote for the Communists. The numbers were reversed in August.
Russian parliamentary elections are due to be held on Dec. 7.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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