MOSCOW – Russia’s Cabinet approved the Kyoto Protocol on Thursday in a crucial step toward putting the long-delayed climate change treaty into effect, although without participation by the United States.
Final approval by the Russian parliament, which would push the treaty past its required ratification threshold, was not guaranteed, however. While the State Duma generally approves legislation backed by President Vladimir Putin, many Russian officials remain opposed to the pact, fearing its restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions could hinder economic growth.
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, on a trip to the Netherlands, said he expected “difficult debate” when the Duma meets to vote on ratification, possibly before the end of the year.
Putin’s economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, lamented the Cabinet’s approval was “a political decision that will damage national interests in many areas,” the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The treaty, drafted in 1997 at a U.N. conference in Kyoto, Japan, seeks to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that are widely seen as a key factor behind global warming.
Without Russia’s support, the pact – which has been rejected by the United States and Australia – cannot come into effect. It needs ratification by 55 industrialized nations accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990.
The Cabinet’s action was cheered by United Nations officials, the governments of Germany, Italy, Britain and Japan and the European Union, which have been among the agreement’s most fervent backers.
Disagreement on how to tackle global warming has been a major source of European ill feeling toward the United States, which alone accounted for about 36 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions in 1990. The U.S. government says the pact would harm the U.S. economy and also argues it favors developing nations like China and India that are big polluters.
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