"Dispute with Russia threatens climate pact; Emission credits surplus at issue" by Philip P. Pan, Washington Post | December 1, 2009
MOSCOW - Russia is on track to far exceed its targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto climate-change treaty, but its success could derail efforts to reach a new accord against global warming, according to officials and analysts following the negotiations.
At issue in the thorny dispute is the huge surplus of carbon credits that Russia - the world’s third-largest producer of energy-related greenhouse gases - is amassing by keeping emissions under generous 1997 Kyoto Protocol limits.
So WHY is that a PROBLEM?
Shouldn't the warmers (as in birthers) be happy anyway?
The Kremlin has insisted that the credits be carried over into a new agreement, but environmentalists say that would cripple any treaty by making it much cheaper for countries to buy credits than cut emissions. “You’ve got an elephant in the room that nobody is paying attention to,’’ said Samuel Charap, a Russia scholar at the Center for American Progress in Washington, arguing that the Obama administration needs to take up the issue with Russia’s leaders.
What, when we are top-dog in farts and have overshot our goals?
That kind of hypocrisy literally stinks!!!!
You would think they would be happy about Russia's performance, but nooooooooo!!
The dispute is unlikely to be settled when global leaders meet this week in Copenhagen for an international summit on climate change, and Charap and others warn that Russia’s cache of credits could allow it to play a last-minute spoiler in the talks.
GOOD!!!
When the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, Russia is expected to post the largest absolute drop in emissions from 1990 levels of any of the countries that signed the treaty. But the decline is almost entirely the result of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet economy rather than environmental measures by the government.
Yeah, SO WHAT? What's your point?
And why didn't they hide the decline?
Critics say Moscow doesn’t deserve to keep its carbon credits because it didn’t earn them with any special effort.
OMG!!!!
What is WRONG with these ARROGANT ASSHOLES?!!!
Russia says that how its emissions plunged is irrelevant.
And I am forced to agree!!!!
What matters, its negotiators say, is that the reduction was real and substantial - large enough to cancel out the rise in emissions in the United States over the same period.
Oh, Americans, OUR GOVERNMENT IS ASSHOLE!!!!!
They portray the issue as a matter of fairness and national pride, often linking the emissions decrease to the severe economic hardship that the country suffered in the 1990s.
Yeah, they SHOULD FEEL THAT WAY!
“It may not have been intentional, but we went through very difficult times and paid a high price for this reduction,’’ said Igor Bashmakov, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency in Moscow who has advised the Kremlin on climate-change policies. “We’ve already done it, while other countries are just talking about it.’’
Yes, those DIFFICULT TIMES that YOU are going through now, America!!!
He said it is important to carry over Russia’s carbon surplus to recognize its contribution to the global effort and establish a “strategic reserve’’ of credits that would allow Russian leaders to commit to further emissions cuts with confidence.
Yeah, how come we are always dissing Russia?
Like the world’s developing nations, Russia says it needs to pursue rapid-growth policies that raise emissions because its living standards lag behind those of wealthier countries.
Yeah, are those STRUGGLING, DESTITUTE countries going to be penalized and taxed for a lie?
While emissions are down 35 to 40 percent since 1990, they have climbed nearly 15 percent since 1998....
And how did AmeriKa do again?
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Related: The World's Biggest Polluter
Yeah, how come the fart-misters are not worried about that, or NASCAR, or their carbon footprints at they jet around the planet?Also related: Australia’s carbon-trading legislation fails
India will not sign binding emission cuts-minister
Yeah, the WORLD is COMING AROUND!
