EU sees Russia ratifying Kyoto - environment mins
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WATERFORD, Ireland, May 16 (Reuters) - The European Union sees Russia ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming soon in connection with its efforts to enter the World Trade Organisation, EU environment ministers said at the weekend.
Though the ministers declined to draw a specific link between Russia's WTO entry and its support of Kyoto, they said the two issues were clearly important to Moscow.
"From their perspective, the whole WTO process and Kyoto obviously have a symmetry about them," Irish environment minister Martin Cullen told Reuters after an informal meeting of EU environment ministers in Ireland, current holder of the rotating six-month EU presidency.
"I think that the signals coming out of Russia at the moment are very positive," he said. "Russia is probably engaged on a number of fronts and one of them being Kyoto and indeed the benefits of emissions trading as well. So we would expect...that will come to a conclusion in the not too distant future."
The EU has put heavy pressure on Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol -- which aims to slow global warming and cannot take effect worldwide without Russian approval. Developed nations responsible for 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions have to ratify the pact for it to come into force.
Getting Russia on board became key after the United States, the world's top polluter, pulled out in 2001, leaving Russia and its 17 percent emissions quota with the deciding vote.
The pact has had mixed support in Russia, however, with some in favour of ratification but others -- notably President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov -- opposed on grounds it would strangle the recovering economy.
WTO LINK?
Although the EU needs Russian ratification to prevent Kyoto from dying, and Russia needs EU support to achieve its WTO entry, EU environment ministers indicated the 25-nation bloc was not using one as leverage to obtain the other.
"The Russians continue to say that they will ratify at some point," British environment secretary Margaret Beckett told Reuters. "I don't think that you would ever find that the one is a tradeoff for the other. On the other hand, there is no doubt that there are economic advantages to Russia," she said.
"They're part of the same overall picture. That's not the same as saying they're part of the same negotiation."
Many analysts say Russia is linking WTO negotiations with its approval of Kyoto.
"The Russians see a very tight connection there," said one minister who asked not to be named. "We would never speak of a link. We believe that we can solve both on a parallel basis."
The European Commission said on Thursday the EU and Russia hoped for a trade deal this month that would be a key stepping stone in Moscow's ambition of WTO entry.
Russia must first strike bilateral deals with top trade partners before it can draw up final entry terms for the WTO, which it hopes to do later this year.
EU environment ministers played down concerns that failure by several member countries to turn in their plans would halt a January 2005 deadline to start trading greenhouse gas emissions.
"I wouldn't present even the lateness of some of the submissions as any particular difficulty," said Ireland's Cullen. "I think it's just resolving a number of individual issues in countries, but in terms of its overall application, it will certainly happen."
The European Commission said last week only 11 out of the 25 European Union states have sent their planned cuts in industrial carbon dioxide emissions to the EU executive, which polices the scheme to meet global pledges in curbing global warming. |
