PARIS COP MEETING: RUSSIA’S POSITION

The UN Climate Conference held on December 2015 in Paris, represented a historic opportunity that sought to place the world on an effective course through addressing the challenge regarding climate change and unleashing investments and efforts towards maintaining a resilient and sustainable environment in the future. The agreement’s primary objective was to restrict the advancements in global average temperature to lower rates of below 20 C which is basically above pre-industrial proportions and pursue initiatives that aim to limit this increase in temperature to approximately 1.50 Celsius. At the conference, a common agreement which incorporated the effective mechanism and goals for preventing changes in climate and the binding moral imperative for all parties was reached. The Paris agreement is basically an outcome of the negotiations under UNFCC and it stretches above the Kyoto Protocol, which obligated a restricted number of participants to lower the emissions of greenhouse gases. The agreement also incorporated the goal to foster the capacity to adjust to the inimical effects of the changes in climate and to ensure that financial flows are harmonious with the executed pathways aimed at reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. To enhance the attainment of these set goals all parties were obliged to pursue efforts aimed at the attainment of a global peak with reference to greenhouse gas emissions and the attainment of an efficient balance amid anthropogenic source emissions and sink removals within the second half of the century. The involved parties, including Russia, selected their most preferable measures and efforts. 1

The Russian Federation was ranked fifth among the largest emitters of (carbon dioxide). Russia contributes approximately 4.9 percent of the world’s overall anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide. According to the latest presented inventory data for 2015, carbon dioxide accounted for an estimated percentage value of sixty-three percent of the overall emissions of greenhouse gases. Methane accounted for approximately thirty-three percent. Nitrous oxide, on the other hand, accounted for three percent. After a historical low record of carbon dioxide emission in 1998, these CO2 discharges have been growing rapidly, with the anomaly of a marked decrease in the year 2009 and 2008 during the rise of the world’s financial predicament. The years, 2015, 2014, and 2013 were also marked with a decline in carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 3.5 percent, 1.5 percent, and 1.9 percent respectively. The reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in the year 2014 inter alia generated by a decrease in the consumption of coal. The increased reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the year 2015 may be associated with the 3.7 percent decrease in Russia’s GDP in that financial year. 2  

Russia’s measures and policies to alleviate climate change involved the regulatory and legislative acts to attain their national agreements under UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), as well as the intended procedures and national programs. The climate policy of Russia has an established emphasis on energy. Russia’s climate policy is aimed at establishing energy severity targets which ought to be attained within the period (until 2020). Under Russia’s program which seeks to enhance the saving of energy and subsequent improvements in energy efficiency by the year 2020, the country has committed to lowering the magnitude of energy per GDP by approximately forty percent in the year 2020 compared to their reduction levels in the year 2007. The strategy demands the development of technological advancements and the eradication of non-economic barriers and risks particularly in fields such as energy efficiency sectors, fuel economy, timber biomass, public transport, and gas transportation. Moreover, environmental regulations will foster the establishment of an ameliorated petroleum gas recovery and the various technological advancements for the oil producing industries in Russia. Under climate negotiations, the Russian Federation established its position as a participant in the Umbrella group. According to its INDC, the Federation of Russia asserted that “reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by twenty-five percent to thirty percent compared to the levels recorded in the year 1990, by 2030 may be a long-term indicator.” It should be duly noted that the Federation of Russia so far, has established legally binding tools in place to attain at least twenty-five reduction in their emissions by the year 2020. Therefore, the INDC will not commit the Federation of Russia to a supplemental decrease in emissions from the year 2020 to the year 2030. The policy I may consider important to my country is the policy associated with the improvement of energy efficiency and energy-saving strategies. The policy plays a significant role in reducing the effects of climate change by adopting new technologies that aim to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases through the use of renewable energy. The policy also seeks to protect the environment through the subsequent reductions in the levels of pollution. The policy fosters the reduction in the utilization of fossil fuels which is a primary source of the emission of greenhouse gas emissions. 3

Bibliography

Dovie, Delali B. K., and Lwasa, Shuaib. “Correlating negotiation hotspot issues, Paris climate agreement, and the international climate policy regime,” Environmental Science & Policy 77, (2017): 1-8. 

Fiona, Harvey. “Paris Climate Change Agreement: The World's Greatest Diplomatic Success.” The Guardian , Dec. 14, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/13/paris-climate-deal-cop-diplomacy-developing-united-nations