#21 - RW 10-15-04 - RW Home
Mosnews.com
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October 14, 2004
Russian Parliament to Ratify Kyoto Oct. 22

A key committee of the Russian State Duma recommended Thursday that it ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change on Oct. 22.

“The committee has heard from experts and government representatives. It recommends ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and suggests doing it on October 22,” Reuters quoted Vladimir Grachyov, head of the State Duma Ecology Committee, as saying.

Although other key committees have yet to discuss the ratification, the ratification on that date is likely because Grachov is a senior member of the pro-Kremlin []United Russia party that has a majority in parliament.

Other key committees are yet to discuss the pact and the final decision on a date is up to the Duma Council, but Grachyov is a senior member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party that dominates parliament, and is unlikely to have suggested a date without prior approval.

Under the terms of the pact, developed countries responsible for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions must ratify for it to come into force.

The pact aims to stabilize these countries’ emissions at 1990 levels by 2012, and is likely to make energy more expensive in some countries.

But most analysts say Russian ratification is risk-free since the Soviet collapse decimated its industry, and its greenhouse gas emissions are only about 70 percent of their 1990 levels, allowing it to sell the excess quotas to over-polluters.