Doha

The main justified expectation of the UN climate conference in Doha was the amendment to the Kyoto Protocol that extended its time period. Continuing to keep the intrigue, Russia did not quit the Protocol, but will participate without obligation. According to the presidential adviser Alexander Bedritsky, the value of this participation is in "the system of annual reporting on emissions" ...

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the Climate Forum in Doha that he will bring together world leaders in advance for negotiating the agreement of 2015, because he is afraid of a repetition of Copenhagen. What should be the climate process in the future and what place may Russia take in it?

Several analytical agencies included Russia in the list of countries consistently claiming for leadership in greenhouse gas emissions. According to representatives of environmental organisations, Russia risks becoming an outsider, if it remains the country of raw materials.

On Saturday, December 8, the Doha round of climate negotiations finally came to an end. COP18 approved Kyoto-2, but failed to provide any significant emissions cuts. Russia remains with a huge but useless amount of hot air.

On December 6 in his official COP18 speech Mr. Bedritsky, Head of the Russian delegation, confirmed the country’s intention to commit to an “up to 25%” emissions reduction from the 1990 level by 2020. This may imply both constraining the emissions to 75% of the 1990 level by 2020 and rather unrestricted emissions growth. The carry-over of 6 billion tons of Russian AAUs to the period of time until 2020, the hot air, must not substitute actual implementation of renewable energy, say NGOs.

Climate Change Performance Index was presented 3rd of December in Doha by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network-Europe. According to this Index Russian Federation is on the 56th place among 58 biggest emitters worldwide. The latest information about Russia's intention to declare the goal of 15-25% emissions reduction by 2020 indicates low ambitions, and partly explains the fact that our country is at the end of the rating.

On December the 4th during the COP18 taking place in Doha, Qatar, NGOs held a series of actions, asking the governments to solve the issue of a gigantic surplus of Kyoto emission permits (AAUs). At the moment the volume of this so-called hot air is about 13 gigatons. Russia is held accountable for around 5 of them, and it has not even announced its emissions reduction targets.

There is a vast surplus of units in Kyoto's cap-and-trade system. Russia and Ukraine spoke in favor of the carry-over of AAUs to the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol (KP2) and beyond. If no solution for the carry-over of this surplus from commitment period to commitment period is found, countries that have put forward a target for KP2 may be under no pressure to deviate from business-as-usual emissions.

The first three days of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha (COP18) have not resulted in any significant decisions so far, as predicted. Russia is practically not ready to take part in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. This will result both in lost opportunities for joint implementation projects and a reduced input of the country to climate mitigation. KP is losing participants, but gaining new ones –Australia announced the willing to join.

November 26: the 18th annual meeting of the parties under the UN convention on climate change opens in Doha, Qatar. Over 17000 delegates and 1500 media representatives from 195 countries are expected to take part. Russian NGOs are looking forward to decisive steps by the Russian official delegation towards joining the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, voicing out significant commitments to reduce its emissions as well as suggestions as to the Green Investment scheme development.