Russia announced on Thursday it would not sign up for a second round of the Kyoto Protocol after the initial phase expires at the end the year, leaving only countries responsible for a mere 15 to 17 per cent of global emissions that are likely to participate.
The UN’s Kyoto Protocol is the only legally binding global agreement on restricting greenhouse gas emissions, but it was never ratified by several major emitters - namely the United States, India and China. Japan and Canada have also said they will not continue emissions cuts under an extended Kyoto Protocol, and will wait for a new global pact that negotiators have agreed to develop by 2015 for implementation by 2020.
In the absence of legally binding emissions reduction targets after this year, countries have been developing voluntary targets and regional cap-and-trade schemes to promote carbon markets for carbon financing.
Russia’s carbon-intensive companies, whose emissions are low compared to benchmark levels from 1990 thanks to reshuffling of Soviet-era industries, have been lobbying for a new binding target so that they can profit from selling UN carbon credits.
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