Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday ordered the government to finalize a government resolution within two weeks on approval of greenhouse gas reduction projects in Russia under the Kyoto protocol.
"We need to approve it (the resolution) as quickly as possible because the term of the Kyoto protocol is in fact expiring and we have not done anything useful in this respect. We all remember that the Kyoto protocol was adopted with so much difficulty and there were so many debates. Since we have signed it, we need to get some investment after all," Medvedev said.
The Kyoto Protocol is a legally binding agreement restricting carbon emissions, which expires in 2012.
Greenhouse gas reduction projects are part of the "joint implementation" mechanism defined by the Kyoto Protocol, which allows a country with greenhouse gas reduction or limitation commitments to earn carbon credits for project participants from a pollution reduction or emission removal project in another country.
In late October 2009, the Russian government empowered the country's top lender Sberbank to be the carbon trading operator while the Economy Ministry was authorized to approve relevant projects. Sberbank has to date held two tenders for 33 joint implementation projects.
