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Five years on the road from Kyoto to Copenhagen

16 February 2010 23:30 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Today, on February 16, the Kyoto Protocol is marking an anniversary: five years since it officially came into force, APA reports citing â€œRia Novosti.â€

This anti-global warming charter has seen many anniversaries. It was adopted in December 1997 in Kyoto (hence its name) and opened for signing in March 1998. The first steps towards its implementation were made on January 1, 2008.

Russia features prominently in the Kyoto Protocol’s short (and far from remarkable) history. Although clearly the protocol could not have come into existence without Russia, its few supporters in the country had to spend many years fighting for it. During those years Andrei Illarionov, the former economic advisor to the then President Vladimir Putin was a staunch opponent of the protocol. However, the Duma and later on the Federation Council eventually ratified it in October 2004 and sent the document to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn. On February 16, 2005 it officially came into force.

In order to become reality the convention had to be ratified by the countries responsible for no less than 55% of all greenhouse emissions (mainly CO2). Before Russia joined the convention, this ratification quota was a little over 45%. Accounting for 17% of global emissions, we immediately transformed Kyoto into legal reality. We were even proud of this for some time until we sobered up.

Nobody knows where we go after Copenhagen. Nobody made any commitments there. All limits are voluntary and are dependent on so many factors that they may well end up being ignored. The next climate change conference will take place in Madrid in the fall.

What is better: yesterday’s Kyoto protocol or Copenhagen today and tomorrow? It seems best to start from scratch and make a more concerted and serious effort. Politics should be removed from climate conferences; UN experts should be more thorough in their reports and scientists should be more open in their publications. The media should be more honest and less corrupt. Everything has to improve. Otherwise, in 25-50 years we will all be uncomfortable.