Russia says it has no plans to cap carbon emissions under a new climate regime, currently being negotiated to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012, Reuters reports.
Under Kyoto, Russia is considered an industrialized country. But the implosion of the Soviet Union left Russia’s economy a little worse for wear, and emitting a lot fewer greenhouse gases than Kyoto holds it accountable for.
But Russia doesn’t have any obligation to curb emissions and doesn’t want any obligation in the future.
When asked if the country would resist capping the use of fossil fuels under a new climate deal after 2012, Vsevolod Gavrilov, the official in charge of Russia’s Kyoto obligations, said: “In the foreseeable future, this will not be our model, no.”
Gavrilov pointed out that the U.S. had also declined to impose emissions caps.
“Energy must not be a barrier to our comfort. Our emerging middle class… demands lots of energy and it is our job to ensure comfortable supply,” he said.
Gavrilov said Russia welcomes investment from other industrialized countries to help it clean up its energy and industry, saying in this way it could prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
A report found that rapid economic growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China means that by 2030 the annual emissions of these four countries together will exceed those of the 30 OECD countries combined.
