Russia vetoes Kyoto due to strict clauses

Recently, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) received word that Russia will not ratify the Kyoto protocol to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases, more specifically carbon dioxide, in its current unrevised form.

"In its current form, the Kyoto protocol places significant limitations on the economic growth of Russia," said Andrei Illarionov, chief adviser on economic issues to Vladimir Putin, in a recent interview with The New Scientist.

Russia was one of the crucial countries to ratify the bill, and without its support, the Protocol lacks multi-lateral backing, and is therefore dead. Currently, France is the only member of the Security Council that shows ardent support for the bill. Although the Protocol can be revised by the UNEP, its implementation is dubious.

The Protocol was formed in a 1997 pact, whose goal was to slow climate change due to intensive global warming, can come into force only if ratified by 55 developed countries which accounted for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990.

Present ratifications cover 44 percent of emissions, meaning Russia's 17 percent would bring the protocol into force. The country's controversy is particularly critical because the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States, has already rejected the treaty.

There is no doubt the Kyoto Protocol places strict limitations on a country's industry. In fact, if the Protocol was to be ratified by a single country, it would have to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 2.3 percent of the 1990 levels. Since the greenhouse gas emission process has been characterized as exponential by scientists, this would severely cut back industrial production and therefore the country's GDP. Furthermore with the United States' refusal to even consider the protocol, other countries will only follow suite.

Currently, the transportation system in Europe is the number one contributor to European greenhouse gas emission. With the declining population in Russia, Putin, according to the Washington Post, finds the Protocol would hurt the Russian economy even further, making its appeal, waning on the whole.