Russia moves ahead on Kyoto protocol

By Kim Murphy
Los Angeles Times

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MOSCOW — Key ministries of the Russian government began the process of ratifying the Kyoto protocol yesterday, signaling that President Vladimir Putin is preparing to put the landmark global-warming treaty to a vote in parliament in what could be the final step on the long road to bringing the pact into force.

After weeks of behind-the-scenes meetings aimed at weighing costs and benefits — including Russia's possible admission later this year into the World Trade Organization (WTO) — Putin directed his Cabinet ministers to "sign as soon as possible" the draft ratification documents, the first step toward allowing Russia to join the 1997 accord.

The Ministry of Natural Resources approved the documents yesterday, but the Economic Development and Trade Ministry called for more scrutiny of the pact's economic consequences, signaling a possible fight. Still, environmental activists said they hoped the issue could be presented to the Russian parliament within the next several weeks.

Russia's participation is a crucial step toward implementation of the protocol, which requires participating industrialized countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for what many scientists believe could be a precipitous change in global climate.

The protocol, which cannot take effect unless Russia signs, aims to reduce greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Countries responsible for 55 percent of emissions must ratify before it comes into force.

Russia has waffled over joining the Kyoto camp, weighing fears that its ceilings on carbon emissions could put a costly stranglehold on economic growth against promises of new foreign industrial investment and sales of unused emissions credits.

One of Putin's top economic advisers, Alexei Illarionov, has repeatedly echoed the criticisms of U.S. officials who elected not to join the protocol, believing it would impose heavy economic costs while failing to provide promised ecological benefits.

But European trade partners have raised Kyoto ratification as an implied condition for WTO membership and for European concessions on Russia's lower-than-market domestic energy pricing.

Alexander Kosarikov, deputy chairman of the parliament's ecology committee, said the Russian Foreign Ministry had prepared documents for ratification. "I would speak of this as a fait accompli with great caution, but my opinion, and I think it is shared by a number of deputies, is that the time to ratify the Kyoto protocol has come," he said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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