NATO Ministerial NRC meeting expected on May 19

NATO Ministerial NRC meeting expected on May 19

expected to meet at the level of foreign ministers in Brussels on May

19, a date which "has tentatively been agreed on with the Russian side,"

a source with the NATO headquarters told Interfax.

BRUSSELS, April 16 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russia-NATO Council will resume work at the ambassador level on April 29, Russia’s permanent representative at the alliance, Dmitry Rogozin told Itar-Tass in an interview on Thursday. He confirmed an earlier statement by a senior NATO official the date had been agreed at Wednesday’s meeting of the RNC’s preparatory committee. The Russia-NATO foreign ministers will gather in the middle of May.

The theme of the first meeting will be informal.

“We shall focus on the most practical issues. Our task will be to take a close look at NATO’s latest actions, such as, the final documents of the alliance’ summit in Strasburg and Kiel, in particular, the paragraphs that have a bearing on Russia, including articles on the future of the CFE and missile defense issues, the alliance’s expansion and so on and so forth,” he said.

“We’ve got to realize where the alliance itself is moving, and to build our relations with it accordingly,” Rogozin said.

Measures to improve RNC mechanisms will be another aspect of joint work.

Rogozin said that earlier on Thursday a number of NATO’s member-countries came out with ideas of how to make RNC a more effective mechanism that would allow for maintaining an uninterrupted dialogue “in any kind of weather in our relations.”

The work of the Russia-NATO Council was frozen immediately after Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia last August. After Rogozin’s request for an emergency RNC meeting the US delegation boycotted the necessary preparatory procedures. As a result, the emergency meeting failed to take place “for technical reasons”, as the alliance’s spokesman explained. Several days later the alliance convened an early meeting of the North Atlantic Council to condemn what it described as Russia’s disproportionate use of force against Georgia and made a decision to freeze RNC’s activities. Only when a new Administration took power in the United States the alliance recognized the need for resuming RNC work and cooperation with Russia.

At the jubilee summit in Strasburg and Kiel on April 3-4 the alliance confirmed the strategic nature of relations with Russia despite the existence of profound differences over a number of issues, including the recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Greenhouse Emissions Hit 13-Year Peak

17 April 2009 Reuters

OSLO -- Russia's greenhouse gas emissions rose by a tiny 0.3 percent in 2007 to the highest level since the 1990s economic downturn caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union, according to data submitted to the United Nations.

Emissions edged up to 2.192 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 from 2.185 billion in 2006, according to official figures filed to the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn.

Russia is the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, behind China and the United States.

The 2007 level was the highest since 1994 but still 33.94 percent below emissions in 1990, the benchmark in the UN's Kyoto Protocol. Russia's emissions tumbled in the 1990s with the collapse of Soviet-era smokestack industries.

The collapse led to a fall in emissions that bottomed out at 1.98 billion tons in 1998, compared to 1990 emissions of 3.32 billion tons. Economic revival has since lifted emissions.

Russia's target under the Kyoto Protocol, which sets curbs on emissions for all industrialized countries except the United States, is to keep emissions below 1990 levels during the 2008-12 period. It can sell any surplus by staying under 1990.

More than 190 nations have agreed to negotiate a new UN climate pact to succeed Kyoto by the end of 2009. Russia, Japan and Ukraine are among developed nations that have not yet laid out domestic goals beyond 2012.

Russia signed up last year for a "vision" by the Group of Eight industrialized nations to halve global emissions by 2050 to help avert rising seas, more floods, droughts and heat waves.

Russia keeps to Kyoto levels

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article175799.ece

News wires

Russia's greenhouse gas emissions rose by 0.3% in 2007, but even with the increase the nation is still keeping to its Kyoto commitment, data submitted to the United Nations shows.

Emissions edged up to 2.192 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2007 from 2.185 billion in 2006, according to official figures filed to the UN Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn.

Russia is the world's number three emitter of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, behind China and the US, a Reuters report said.

The 2007 level was the highest since 1994 but still 33.94% below emissions in 1990, the benchmark in the UN's Kyoto Protocol. Russia's emissions tumbled in the 1990s with the collapse of Soviet-era smokestack industries.

The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union led to a fall in emissions that bottomed out at 1.98 billion tonnes in 1998, compared to 1990 emissions of 3.32 billion. Economic revival has since lifted emissions.

Russia's target under the Kyoto Protocol, which sets curbs on emissions for all industrialised countries except the US, is to keep emissions below 1990 levels during the 2008-2012 period. It can sell any surplus by staying under 1990.

More than 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a new UN climate pact to succeed Kyoto. Russia, Japan and Ukraine are among developed nations that have so far not laid out domestic goals beyond 2012.

Russia signed up last year for a "vision" by the Group of Eight industrialised nations to halve global emissions by 2050 to help avert the worst of warming such as rising seas, more floods, droughts and heatwaves.

Thursday, 16 April, 2009, 08:38 GMT  | last updated: Thursday, 16 April, 2009, 08:38 GMT

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