Vladimir Putin going to Paris to attend forum on climate, to meet with counterparts

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend on Monday a UN conference on climate that is held in Paris. Decisions taken at the forum are destined to have fundamental importance for the ecological situation on the planet but the most recent military and political developments create the risk of pushing environmental problems to the background and to bring intense contacts among participants into limelight instead. The list of leaders of almost 150 countries expected in Paris includes U.S. President Barack Obama, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan, among others. Consensus on post-Kyoto document absent The goal of the conference is to adopt a new multilateral agreement on climate that will replace the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change after 2020. "The Kyoto Protocol embraces only 13% to 14% of the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions and it has stopped playing the role of an efficacious instrument for the solution of climate problems," a Kremlin adviser said in this connection. "But the world doesn’t have any consensus on a post-Kyoto document." "Russia views the Paris conference as an important international event, the outcome of which will predetermine in many ways the prospects for sustained development of different countries," Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said. He gave the assurances that Russian side was pressing for adoption of a comprehensive and legally binding agreement at the conference. This agreement was to spell out the efforts of all the countries and primarily the biggest issuers of greenhouse gasses (China, the U.S., the EU, and Russia and to lay down a solid groundwork for long-term climate regulations. These regulations were be balanced in all the aspects - ecological, economic and political. Russia and the ten years the new treaty will stay in effect Russian President’s special envoy for climate problems, Alexander Bedritsky, believes the main guiding element in the process of elaboration of the new agreement should be the "upkeep of the encouraging reserves and experience gained under the auspices of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as elimination of weak points of the current climate regulations." Also, the signatories are to specify the deadlines for an effective functioning of the agreement and the approaches to the current climate regulation mechanisms. In addition, the signatory nations are to determine the validity period of the new agreement and the criteria for reviewing the contributions made by the signatory countries. "We think this period should durable enough for unfolding the programmes of economic modernization and technology overhauls, and this will require about ten years of a period through to 2030," Bedritsky said in a statement. "The new agreement should take effect as soon as possible and assure broad participation of the signatory countries," he believes. "From the legal angle of view, main attention should be given to the countries’ obligations and places in the structure of the agreement." "Climate change is a global problem and that’s why it is important to seek consensus without superimposing the interests of one group of countries in clear detriment to the interests of other groups, on the one hand, and to avoid encroachments on international legal norms and regulations, on the other hand," Bedritsky said. "That’s a key condition for success." He stressed Russia’s interest in the fruitfulness of the Paris conference, adding that Moscow was eyeing active participation in the future talks in collaboration with all the countries concerned and in the spirit of transparency and collective responsibility. Challenge of a planetary scale calling for new approaches Putin raised the ecological theme in September as he addressed the UN General Assembly. He called on to search for new groundbreaking solutions then, saying humankind had enough resources to cope with this global challenge. "By setting quotas for hazardous discharges and using other tactical steps we can alleviate the burden of the problem for some time but we won’t solve it radically," he said. "We need quality new approaches. The case in hand is the assimilation of dramatically new technologies, which don’t damage the environment around us and, on the contrary, co-exist in the harmony with us." Putin urged the nations boasting powerful research platforms and experience in fundamental sciences to pool efforts. "We recommend convening a special forum under the UN auspices where we could look in detail the problems arising from the depletion of mineral resources, devastation of natural habitats and climate changes," he said adding that Russia was prepared to take on the role of an organizer of the forum of this kind. Read more