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Business leaders see big benefits to Moscow from Kyoto
Moscow, Oct 05: Business leaders on Wednesday urged Moscow to save the Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming, saying it could bring billions of dollars to Russia.
Moscow, Oct 05: Business leaders on Wednesday urged Moscow to save the Kyoto Protocol to curb global warming, saying it could bring billions of dollars to Russia.
Moscow has put off a decision on the pact which seeks to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases from cars and factories blamed for driving up global temperatures.
Russia wants cash guarantees before signing up to the pact which will fail without its backing.
Soviet-era industries have collapsed, giving Moscow spare pollution quotas to sell abroad under Kyoto, which is meant as a first step to brake rising world temperatures that may trigger more floods, droughts, tornadoes and raise sea levels.
"Kyoto will probably mean Russia will be getting upwards of three or four billion dollars a year" by selling spare quotas, director of the International Emissions Trading Association Andrei Marcu said at the World Climate Change Conference.
The association groups foreign companies including BP, Shell, Lafarge, Dupont and Tokyo Electric.
Asked about the possibility of governments or companies giving cash guarantees, he told Reuters: "I'm not sure anybody will be in a position to do that."
But potential demand for Russian quotas fell after the United States, the world's biggest polluter, pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 saying it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations.
Before the US withdrawal, some experts had estimated Russia's emissions could be worth $8.0 billion a year.
"In my opinion Russia will and shall ratify," said Sergei Roginko, head of a committee of Russian and foreign companies interested in cleaning up emissions. "It's in Russia's best interests."
Bureau Report
Moscow has put off a decision on the pact which seeks to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases from cars and factories blamed for driving up global temperatures.
Russia wants cash guarantees before signing up to the pact which will fail without its backing.
Soviet-era industries have collapsed, giving Moscow spare pollution quotas to sell abroad under Kyoto, which is meant as a first step to brake rising world temperatures that may trigger more floods, droughts, tornadoes and raise sea levels.
"Kyoto will probably mean Russia will be getting upwards of three or four billion dollars a year" by selling spare quotas, director of the International Emissions Trading Association Andrei Marcu said at the World Climate Change Conference.
The association groups foreign companies including BP, Shell, Lafarge, Dupont and Tokyo Electric.
Asked about the possibility of governments or companies giving cash guarantees, he told Reuters: "I'm not sure anybody will be in a position to do that."
But potential demand for Russian quotas fell after the United States, the world's biggest polluter, pulled out of Kyoto in 2001 saying it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations.
Before the US withdrawal, some experts had estimated Russia's emissions could be worth $8.0 billion a year.
"In my opinion Russia will and shall ratify," said Sergei Roginko, head of a committee of Russian and foreign companies interested in cleaning up emissions. "It's in Russia's best interests."
Bureau Report