Posted on 10/22/2004 7:52:39 AM PDT by Michael Goldsberry
MOSCOW - Russia's Duma ratified the Kyoto Protocol today, clearing the way for the long-delayed climate change pact to come into force worldwide.
The State Duma's ratification pushes the 126-nation U.N. accord, aimed at battling global warming, over the threshold of 55 percent of developed nations' greenhouse gas emissions needed to make it internationally binding after a U.S. pullout in 2001.
"We'll toast the Duma with vodka tonight," Greenpeace climate policy adviser Steve Sawyer said in a statement ahead of the expected vote in favour of the pact.
The bill was passed in the lower house of parliament by 334 votes in favour, with 73 against and two abstentions.
It still has to go through the upper house and be signed into law by its key advocate, President Vladimir Putin. But these are seen as formalities and Friday's vote in the Duma, controlled by pro-Kremlin parties, is the key to ratification.
Hailing the decision "as the moment in history when humanity faced up to its responsibility," Sawyer said the international community now had to build on the Kyoto Protocol to agree on much deeper emissions reductions.
Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), 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 the even deeper cuts."
Kyoto obliges rich nations to cut overall emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 by curbing use of coal, oil and natural gas and shifting to cleaner energies like solar or wind power.
EXTREME WEATHER
Rising global temperatures have been linked to extreme weather patterns, including droughts, flooding and rising sea levels which are seen by some as possible sparks for regional conflicts.
Moscow signed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in 1999. But it signalled it would ratify it only this year in exchange for EU agreement on the terms of Moscow's admission to the World Trade Organization.
Russia, which accounts for 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by developed nations, became the key to Kyoto after the United States pulled out in 2001, saying it was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations.
With Russia, Kyoto will represent 61 percent of emissions against a current 44 percent. The U.S. share is 36 percent.
Proponents of Kyoto say that, apart from improving the environment worldwide, the pact would force Russia to upgrade its industry to new standards.
They also believe Russia, whose smokestack industries have cut emissions by about 38 percent since the collapse of the Soviet Union, could earn billions of dollars by selling excess quotas for gas emissions to polluters abroad.
But opponents insist new emission limits could constrain Russia's economic growth and undermine Putin's plan to double gross domestic product in 10 years.
Russian debates reflect worldwide arguments over the pact, which could cost trillions of dollars to implement.
"There are far more important problems to address like HIV, malaria, malnutrition and ways to improve free trade," said Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist" who reckons Kyoto is money badly spent.
Just because they are stupid does not mean that we have to be.
Great. GREENPEACE frivil-puke. We are at WAR you morons!
Just like here in the USA, everything else is MUTE when someone is TRYING TO ANNIHILATE YOU.
Russia would not have passed this unless they expected to make a profit from it.
Their economy is in the crapper (anyone who has been to the villages and seen the poverty can attest) and they are the furthest candidates for economic "give back" that can be imagined.
Not to mention that Russia, who brought us the technology of Chernobyl, is maybe the world's worst polluter, including having hundreds of decaying nuke subs (with their reactors) lying rusting in the ports. What a sick joke. The UN should be forced to gather for a swim in Lake Baikal.
oops .......... it's early and I have a head cold .... I meant to type MOOT... (They tell me my anger management is working ... ;-) )
Does anybody really believe that ANYONE but the U.S. would be out money on this fiasco? The only way we'll ever sign it is if Kerry/Heinz gets elected.
Exactly. News World International had a thing on Kyoto last night. While it sounds good, I was amazed that countries could sell to another country their unused environment quota. So a big polluter country could buy unused quotas from a nonpolluter country.
That's nothing new. Here in Upstate NY, XXXXX buys up blocks from others. I don't dare use the real name!!
If they work like Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) for the fishing industry, that might actually be a good thing.
Building Conservation into Individual Transferable Quota Programs
I think that power companies can trade SO2 emission credits in the US, and most environmentalists (gasp) think that this is program that works!
I don't know if they work like ITQs. NWI wasn't too specific on the specs of Kyoto, just the constant praise of Russia for joining.
Oh thank God. I have hardly been able to sleep or eat for days worrying about this.
This is probably why Bill Clinton wants to be head of the UN. He can champion Kyoto around the world, and have a legacy of something other than oral sex.
That, and he can't stand being out of the public eye.
Anybody believe this? Anybody have a link to this info?
I think the emissions reduction is simply due to all the old, inefficient busywork factories coming offline after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Yes, they don't want Siberia to WARM UP. That would be devastating.
Yes, that is exactly the case. The treaty requires them to reduce their emissions to 1990 levels; their old industries were very inefficient, and the collapse of their old smoke-stack industry has left them in the position of being well below their 1990 pollution levels. That is by design; the people who designed Kyoto were careful to word it this way in order to get Russian support.
So Russia can expand their industry without running up against Kyoto constraints.
China is effectively shielded from Kyoto, which means that Kyoto mainly applies to us. It will accelerate the transfer of our industrial base to China. No one can support Kyoto and complain about outsourcing and job loss. If they do they are conning you.
Well, you can kiss American offshore outsourcing goodbye now.
Prosecutors in France and Belgium can now sue American offshore factories in every signatory nation of the Kyoto Treaty for emissions violations.
This means that American factories and corporations in China and India can be sued, whereas domestic Indian and Chinese factories in India and China are themselves *exempt* from higher emissions standards.
That's what I always thought. Of course, you'll never see the MSM report it like this.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.