Russia’s take on Climate

As reported by Itar-Tass on 26th September, Russian Federation has taken its duties seriously in respect to global climatic change and in view of the COP16-Cancun preparations.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko confirmed at the 65th session of the UN General Assembly the definite cut of greenhouse emissions for 2020 (Medvedev’s promise remains at 25%, as compared to levels of 1990) and additionally an energy efficiency increase up to 40%, - provided the economic benefits.

As the Time of Cancun draws nearer, environmental topics – not least related to climate change – are yet again on the agenda; the last stage of negotiations takes place this week at UN FCCC in Tianjin, China (where, incidentally, the conference takes place for the very first time).
The menu of hot-topics includes international funding set-up for aiding developing countries, further implementation on carbon emissions (Low Carbon Action Plan a.k.a. LCAP and Quantified Emission Reduction Commitments a.k.a. QERC) and a still universally continuing lack of shared ideals.

In view of this, Russia is set to be realizing its possible stakes and actions; at present, Tianjin is the last stop before Cancun. Yet, surprisingly this conference is yet missing the head of the Russian delegation (Alexander Bedristsky) and a number of leading experts in the field.

One of the presumable reasons for this is that Russia has a solid view on climatic discussion and there has been a belief that Tianjin UNFCCC would not provide much room for a changing-the-opinion discussion.
Funnily enough, just a mere week prior to the official conference start, the head of state has paid a visit to Beijing, some 160km away from Tianjin, where he officially commented on Russia Expo 2010.

For the few hopefuls who, however, will do their best at observation of the delegation’s activities, it remains to rejoice in the must-be-attendees of LCA (O. Shamanov, head of Ministry of International Affairs), KP (M. Gitarsky, who edits for IPCC) and LULUCF (RosHydroMet representatives). Others have already drawn their tactic moves and conclusions, perhaps making Cancun the priority.
Well, then it would make all the more sense to be spending time on the initiatives of representatives from the CIS states, who are increasingly taking their chances and voices more seriously.