Last Friday 19th June, Russian President Medvedev formalised the proposed cuts that its country plans to put into place by 2020: a 10-15 percent reduction from Russia’s emissions in 1990, before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Under this target Russia will in fact increase its emissions going from 2.2 billion tonnes in 2007 to 3 billion tonnes in 2020. After remaining the last rich country to provide information on mid-term targets, Russia managed to come up with mild targets that do not meet the expectations of neither environmental groups nor developing countries, which had asked for bolder targets of at least 25-40 percent reduction. So far the Russian government has made clear that it will not undertake environmental commitments that may hamper the country’s economic development. 

• This news is extracted from the Emission Trading Monitor : a weekly column that summarises the latest news on international climate change agreements, the updates on the carbon market and the energy and technology updates in the realm of climate change. Go to the web page and see all previous issues.
• This week: Czech Republic to withdraw lawsuit, EU leaders postpone decision on finance, new funding
  opportunity for CCS, Australian ETS draft released, Russia releases climate targets and the carbon market Download June 15-19 2009 issue [pdf – 163 Kb]: