Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev confirmed that by 2020 Russia would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent in comparison with 1990.
“I confirm that by 2020 greenhouse gas emission in Russia will be 25 percent less than the 1990 level,” Medvedev said at the conference on Sustainable Development Climate.
Russia is ready to be a member of a global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
“But a truly global one, that involves all the major economies, not just some of them,” he said. Developing countries such as China and India have not met their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The U.S. has said it would not participate in the protocol until 2013.
He added that it is necessary to ensure the growth of an energy-efficient "green economy" but warned against bureaucratizing the transition to the "green growth" model.
Medvedev also stressed the importance of establishing mechanisms to share best practices and technologies through a "green development". The UN should play a leading role in this process.
Russia's emissions in 2009 relative to the Kyoto Protocol's base year of 1990 - coincidentally the last full year of the Soviet Union's existence - fell by 35.6 percent or 1.19 billion tons of CO2 equivalent.
