Russia submits its new climate action plan to UNFCCC

UNITED NATIONS, April 2. /TASS/. Russia plans by 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25-30 percent, compared to the level of 25 years ago, says Russia’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), released Wednesday by the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The document says that reducing GHG emissions by 25-30% from 1990 levels by 2030, in accordance with the plan, will allow the Russian Federation to step on the path of low-carbon development compatible with the long-term objective of the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius. This objective can be achieved with efforts of all Parties of the future climate agreement. However, the Moscow-submitted plan says that the final decision of the Russian Federation on the INDC within the framework of the new climate agreement will be taken pursuant to the outcome of the negotiating process underway throughout the year of 2015 and the INDCs announced by major emitters of greenhouse gases. The secretariat said that an international climate agreement, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol was planned to be concluded in December this year. The purpose of the negotiating process under the UN auspices is to agree on such a level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. Russia is the 35th Convention signatory that has submitted its national plan of action. Previously, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions were formally presented by the EU countries, the United States, Mexico and several other states. According to UNFCCC data, the Russian Federation’s contribution means that two thirds of industrialised countries covering nearly 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrialised part of the world have now set out their ambition for the new agreement which nations will reach in Paris, in December and which will come into effect in 2020. Coming well in advance of Paris, these early Intended Nationally Determined Contributions bode well for the final agreement, said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. "The Russian Federation’s timely and welcome submission has added an additional and important momentum to this global effort. Industrialised countries are expected to lead the world in reducing greenhouse gases. I encourage the remaining industrialised nations to come forward with their submissions as soon as they can," Ms Figueres said. With 196 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, according to the UNFCCC. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. For the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialised countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments. In Doha in 2012, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol adopted an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which establishes the second commitment period under the Protocol. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. Read more