Russia's role vital for Copenhagen

Russia Emissions Targets

Russia's surprise pledge to cut its CO2 emissions by as much as 25 percent has been met with great optimism from the European Union, as pressure mounts on world leaders to reach a comprehensive global climate change deal was made in Copenhagen next month.

Europe and the US have emerged as the leading endorsers for December's UN summit, but with Obama's recent meeting with Hu Jintao in Beijing and the recent announcement from Russian diplomats, it would seem that both China and Russia are on board to try and make the meeting in Copenhagen more than just a political statement.

At a summit with the EU in Sweden on Wednesday November 18 Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, detailed Russia's carbon cutting program that runs from 1990 through 2020.

The 27-nation EU has committed to reducing the bloc's CO2 emissions blamed for global warming by 20 percent in that period, or by 30 percent if others take similar actions.

Questions remain over the issue of Russia's unused carbon credits

And whereas this is a step in the right direction for the EU in the lead up to Copenhagen, questions remain over the issue of Russia's unused carbon credits, which could cause a crash on the carbon exchange market if Moscow cashes them in.

But Russia's open involvement in EU efforts to cut carbon emissions has many benefits, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso wholly welcomed their decision. He expressed his support for Russia climate change policies and also took the opportunity in Sweden to re-iterate his support for Russia to join the WTO in order to increase confidence for Western investors and help remove protectionist obstacles to trade.

However doubts remain over whether this will happen or not, as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has not ruled out his country trying to join the free-trade bloc as a unit alongside Belarus and Kazakhstan. And as BusinessWeek reports, this could delay Russia's membership by a number of years and also stall progress on a new EU-Russia bilateral treaty.

One just hopes Russia comes to Copenhagen with purely good intentions.

"Russia has always been in the mainstream of European views"

The UN will host about 190 countries in Copenhagen starting December 7 to seek an accord on emission reductions to extend or replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol climate accord. The UN wants any deal to limit the increase in world temperatures since industrialization began to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to stem the effects of global warming.

Russia's recent announcement carries such significance because the involvement of both developed and developing parts of the world is vitally important to the global fight against global warming.

In a statement that will have settled many nerves among EU leaders, Medvedev said, "Russia has always been in the mainstream of European views on what should be done on the climate problem.

"The next step is to convince other colleagues that cooperation in this sphere is absolutely topical and vital.

"We all need to do this ahead of the Copenhagen conference, which I hope will be successful despite that we haven't so far coordinated a legally binding agreement."

The video below gives a brief overview of Russia's energy targets and their future involvement with the WTO.

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