Russian Law on Climate Change

This chapter outlines Russian legislation relevant to climate change. Russia ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2004. The main legal elements of institutional compliance under the Protocol included requirements to submit annual greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines, and to establish a registry to keep track of domestic emissions and implementation of the Kyoto mechanisms. The Federal Service of Russia for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), together with the Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, were designated as the entities responsible for developing Russia’s GHG inventory. Russia’s compliance was driven by its opportunity to participate in the Kyoto mechanisms. These flexibility mechanisms—Joint Implementation (JI) and International Emissions Trading—allow industrial countries to trade emission allowances in order to direct climate mitigation investments into the most cost-effective measures available.

7. Politics of climate change

Climate change can only be solved by having binding international agreements to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. ‘Politics of climate change’ reviews the role of the UNFCC and the regular ‘Conference of the Parties’ (COPs) climate change negotiations beginning with the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in 1997 by over 190 countries. Failures at COP15 in Copenhagen (2009) due to the introduction by the US and BASIC countries of voluntary pledges set back negotiations. COP18 in Doha (2012) reinstated the Kyoto mechanisms and accounting rules, and encouraged parties to review and, if possible, increase their commitments. It is hoped that a timetable for a binding climate agreement can be finalized at COP21 in Paris in 2015.

The Economic Comparisons and Introduction to China of the Kyoto Mechanisms

The Kyoto mechanisms are important cost-effective ways of CO2 reduction for Annex I countries in the Kyoto Protocol. This paper makes a comparison among international emission trading (IET), joint implementation (JI) and clean development mechanism (CDM) on development potentials and economic efficiencies; builds a state-space decision model for the government to encourage enterprises to invest more in project-based mitigation; then presents the pareto optimality conditions. Some conclusions and suggestions for the introduction to China of Kyoto mechanisms are provided finally.

The Influence of Business and Industry NGOs in the Negotiation of the Kyoto Mechanisms: the Case of Carbon Capture and Storage in the CDM

This article examines the role of business and industry NGOs (BINGOs) within the international climate negotiations. It develops a typology of BINGOs operating in the regime, and a framework for assessing the influence of these organizations. The framework is applied to a case study of the negotiation of carbon capture and storage technologies as a Kyoto Protocol mitigation option. In contrast to previous research, the article illustrates the existence of formal and informal networks among BINGOs, a variety of national delegations and international institutions, and demonstrates how these networks are tactically invoked in the effort to influence specific negotiation processes and outcomes. It is argued that BINGO activities influenced negotiations on regulatory design, and that a plausible explanation of business influence in this context lies in the notion of corporate technological power.