Resolution on Climate and Energy Policy of the all-Russia conference on Ecological Modernization of Russia and all-Russia conference on NGO Involvement in National Climate and Energy Policy October 25-26, 2010

We are seriously concerned with the poor outcome of the international negotiations toward a new comprehensive agreement on the issues of climate change, which should replace the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. The Accord developed in Copenhagen has never turned into a UN Decision. Voluntary proposals of various countries on reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2020 as a whole, and, in particular Russia’s plans of 15-25% level below 1990 by 2020 are absolutely insufficient to stop growth of global emissions and reach the goal of 50% reduction required for the middle of the century.

Non-governmental organizations indicate the importance of the regulatory acts adopted by Russia in 2009, including the Federal Law “On Energy Saving and Enhancement of Energy Efficiency,” the RF Energy Strategy until 2030, and the Climate Doctrine of Russia. So far, Russia has neither an Action Plan to fulfill the Climate Doctrine, nor efficient mechanisms to support the “green” low-carbon energy. The strategic planning documents are targeted at further absolute growth of energy consumption seen as a precondition of country’s development. Goals on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are feeble and poorly coordinated with the global and national goals in the area of energy efficiency and renewable energy.

We cannot be satisfied that Russian adoption of the Joint Implementation projects (JI) of the Kyoto Protocol is supporting a few projects of major business companies, while hundreds of smaller projects on renewable energy (RE) receive no adoption at all.

Emphasizing that international climate agreements as a whole meet the national strategic interests of Russia in modernization and technological renovation, the importance of which the President of Russia stressed in his address to the Council of Federation on November 12, 2009, and the State Council of Russia adopted in its decision in March 2010, we encourage the President and the Government of Russia to implement in 2010–2012 the following additional and urgent measures, necessary for accomplishment of an efficient national climate and energy policy:

• Correct and complement the strategic planning documents (the Concept of Long-Term Social and Economic Development, the Energy Strategy until 2030) with intermediate goals for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors of the economy before 2020. The goals shall be sufficient to keep the emission on the pre-crisis level of 2006-2008 (65% of the 1990 level without accounting of LULUCF units and any carry over of quotas from the first period of the Kyoto Protocol).
• Development of a “road map” for reduction of 80% of greenhouse gas emission by 2050 as compared to the 1990 level must be included in the Plan of implementation of the Climate Doctrine. We should consider transfer to low-carbon economy by 2050 as a strategic concept; the RE share shall be no less than 50% with phase out of nuclear energy and ban for construction of new dam hydropower plants (HPPs), and HPPs in vulnerable regions.
• The Energy Strategy of Russia until 2030 must link RE and energy efficiency goals with corresponding national goals on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and reconsider development indexes in favor of renewable energy and energy efficiency at the stage of final consumer.
• Regulatory acts supporting renewable energy sources must be adopted without delay; those shall include a scheme of compensating expenses on RE production and other regulatory documents for the state support of RE.
• Investments in the energy efficiency and RE, excluded from the budget planning documents in 2009 under the excuse of expense reduction due to the crisis, must be resumed. Not only will this allow to implement efficient national policy on preventing climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it will also open a way for technological re-equipping and enhancement of competitiveness of the Russian economy.
• Strategic planning documents must be corrected to exclude construction of new nuclear power plants. The dangerous practice of prolongation of exploitation terms for the operating nuclear power plants must be cancelled.
• Strategic planning documents must be corrected to exclude development of new major dam HPPs and HPPs in vulnerable regions. While projecting dam HPPs, extreme anomalies of the weather and climate, occurring more frequently in the recent decades, must be taken into account.
• A moratorium shall be declared on industrial exploitation of the Arctic shelf due to economic and ecological risks of shelf hydrocarbon excavation.
• The Federal Law “On Energy Saving and Enhancement of Energy Efficiency” must be corrected and the text excluded from it in the course of the last edition must be brought back. This section on the rights and responsibilities of citizens in the area of energy saving and energy efficiency provides motivation for citizens to implement energy saving activities at the level of an apartment, a house, and their personal consumption.
• Conditions for direct involvement of NGOs in promoting low-carbon solutions at the local level must be provided.
• Measures for mitigating anthropogenic impact on the climate must include ban for grassland fires (agricultural burning out) with the purpose to reduce emissions of the “black carbon” (black soot which reduces snow and ice albedo in the Arctic).
• Measures of reduction of the organic waste’s input (waste disposals, agricultural and forestry wastes) in the greenhouse gas generation must be undertaken, including those at the account of developing bioenergetics.
• Measures on saving natural absorbers of greenhouse gases (forests and marshes) must be taken.
• Conditions for non-governmental organizations’ participation in the development of official educational programs, recommended manuals and other educational reference books on climate change and propaganda of energy saving solutions, including those through the system of state order, must be provided.