Russia pledges steeper emissions cuts

19 November 2009

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has declared that Russia will further reduce emissions reductions.

Russian diplomats have said Moscow will raise emissions targets from ten to 15 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020, to between 20 and 25 per cent, according to reports.

His statement came at the EU-Russia summit in Stockholm on Wednesday, and was welcomed by Swedish President Fredrik Reinfeldt.

‘We are in agreement on the two degree target and the need for emissions reductions from both developed and developing countries in order to reach it. Russia is one of the world’s greatest emitting countries, so it has an important role to play if the world is to reach a climate agreement in Copenhagen,’ said Reinfeldt.

The EU and Russia signed an Early Warning Mechanism energy agreement earlier this week on Monday in Moscow, to avoid interruptions in energy supply from Russia to the EU.

European Commission José Manuel Barroso added, ‘We cannot negotiate with nature. We cannot negotiate with physics. We cannot negotiate with science. I have asked my staff to cooperate closely with their Russian colleagues in order to work out the details of Russia’s increased commitment on these issues.’

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Tags: policy

This story was published on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Europe, energy efficiency, policy. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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