Illarionov: Kyoto would mean no growth for Russia

Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol would put the brakes on Russia's economic growth, Andrey Illarionov, a Russian presidential adviser on economics, Tuesday declared at the seminar, 'Kyoto Protocol Ratification: Gain or Loss?,' Rosbalt reported. He said the Protocol calls for a 58% reduction by 2050 in Russian atmospheric emissions of carbon acids as compared with current rates of emission. 'Beginning in 2012, Russia will have to lower its rate of carbon acid emissions by 3.5% a year,' the adviser said. 'This is completely at odds with President Putin's goal to increase the gross national product.'

The Kyoto Protocol, Illarionov said, calls for Russia to reduce its carbon-acid emissions to the level of 1990 or, in other words, to a no-growth position for the country's economy. Moreover, he said, the Protocol only calls for carbon-acid emission reductions from 32 of 122 signatory states. The other states, he said, which are under no obligation to cut emissions, are raising them yearly.

Illarionov is convinced that the Kyoto Protocol will not work in that those countries that now produce up to 70% of all carbon acids emitted into the atmosphere face no cutbacks and will be producing 74%-75% of carbon-acid emissions a decade from now.