Russia backs Kyoto climate treaty

[muriel_volestrangler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3702640.stm

The Russian government has approved the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and sent it to parliament for ratification.
...
The necessary law on ratification is set to pass through the Russian parliament unhindered and, in theory, the treaty could come into force within three months.

The lower house, the State Duma, is dominated by the pro-Putin United Russia party.
...
In particular, there has been talk of stronger European Union support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, in response to its ratification of the treaty.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Wow, never thought I'd see the day that Russia's policies were

more environmental friendly than the USA's. MKJ

[democracy eh]

2. Woo Hoo!

Kyoto is certainly not perfect, but it is a start.

So my questions now are...

What is Kerry's position on Kyoto? I scanned the JK website but couldn't find specifics

If Kyoto has come into effect by Russia signing, will a JK administration sign on?

Is this another sign of divisions between USA and Russia? and Bush's declining influence? Does Putin believe Bush is going to lose? Is the EU's carrot bigger than Bush's?

[aneerkoinos]

3. Putin is tough negotiator

He milked this deal well, even though Kyoto in it self is good deal for Russia, it gets BIG emission quotas to sell (they are calculated from the time before the collapse of Russias heavy industry).

[IrateCitizen]

4. I thought that emission credits were based more on carbon sinks

That also explains the amount of credits that Russia has to sell, when one takes into account the forests that cover much of the Siberian region.

Strangely, the United States also would have had a significant number of carbon sinks to offset industrial emissions. The whole trading scheme based on carbon sinks was viewed by many environmentalists as one of the downfalls of the accord (downfalls as in the accord didn't go far enough), and it STILL wasn't seen as permissive enough by the US business community.

If anything, this should just show how out-of-whack the US business community truly is.... :crazy:

[aneerkoinos]

9. Don't know

Carbon sinks feature some significant way, but I'm not sure what's actually Kyoto and what EU policies about them. Russia's emissions are 30% below the year that Kyoto quotas were agreed upon.

[GreenGreenLimaBean]

5. kick

this is big news, and a blow to bush*.

[One_Life_To_Give]

6. A unintended gift for China n/t

[mdbeliever]

7. Hopefully this comes up in the debate tonight -

otherwise it will get buried under debate news.

[goodhue]

8. big news

Here in NYT account . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-environment-kyoto.html?hp

[SidDithers]

10. Very big...

gonna kick it back up :)

Sid

[Downtown Hound]

11. Good for you Russia

You have put the United States to shame today. Fuckin' Bush.

[pinniped]

12. * is a disgrace for ditching the Kyoto Protocol.

One of the first things chimp did after stealing the wh.

I haven't heard asshole*'s plan for an alternative to the KP.