Posted on 09/29/2004 2:09:48 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON — Russian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol would leave U.S. companies cut off from new markets worth billions of dollars, according to supporters of a treaty aimed at limiting so-called greenhouse gases.
The United States signed the treaty in 1997 but has withdrawn from it.
That means U.S. producers of technologies that reduce consumption of fossil fuels will be left out of new global markets created as countries signing the treaty move to reduce their outputs of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, supporters said.
Members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's Cabinet were signing on this week to his request that the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, ratify the treaty.
Russia's ratification would satisfy a treaty provision making it effective 90 days after it is ratified by industrialized countries responsible for 55 percent of the 1990 global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
The treaty has been ratified by more than 100 countries, including Japan and all the countries of the European Union.
But the refusal of the United States and Australia to sign up means only Russia had sufficient 1990 emissions to push the total up to the 55 percent figure.
If Kyoto goes into force, foreign rather than U.S. companies making everything from wind energy technology to thermal windows will benefit from its provisions, said Jonathan Pershing of the World Resources Institute.
Pershing, a former deputy director of the State Department Office of Global Change who helped negotiate the treaty, said domestic producers in countries that are reducing greenhouse gases under the treaty will be favored over U.S. competitors.
In addition, financial companies that arrange emission trades under a Kyoto provision for selling pollution credits probably will not be U.S.-based, he said.
The accord sets 1990 as a baseline year against which developed countries must cut emissions and provides a trading mechanism whereby countries that produce less greenhouse gas than their 1990 baseline can sell "allowances" to those that fail to do so.
"Russia will benefit from a great wealth transfer as EU funds flow into the country in exchange for rights to Russian carbon dioxide allowances," said William O'Keefe, president of the George Marshall Institute.
Whether Russia will have billions of dollars in allowances to sell is in dispute.
Putin economic adiser Andrei Illarionov, an opponent of the treaty, said Russia is growing and soon will exceed its 1990 baseline. Caps on further emissions would inhibit the country's economy, he said.
The protocol was signed by the United States and other countries in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. President Bill Clinton decided not to submit it to the Senate for ratification after 95 members signaled it would fail. After taking office in 2001, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signer.
"Sadly . . . this leaves the United States isolated," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense.
-tough superpower love-
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