Abstract
Russia’s role in ‘animation’ of the Kyoto Protocol was crucial. Its initial vacillation on ratification was predominantly due to political bargaining with the EU. Domestic economic rationales [i.e. impacts of emission trading and Joint Implementation (JI) projects] were important to a much lesser extent and environmental motives did not seem to play any role in the decision. Since the Protocol entered into force, there have been significant delays in complete establishment of policy implementation frameworks, which are necessary for Russia to start benefiting from JI and emission trading. Only recently, in 2007, have GHG inventories and a national registry been established and the responsibilities for implementation of the Protocol and JI among the government departments have been distributed only to a certain extent. Some constraints hindering JI projects, such as vague legislation, an unfavourable economic climate, lack of commitment to JI projects, corruption, xenophobia, state and agency ‘capture’ still remain.
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Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) PhD-Academy on Sustainability and Technology in Zurich. We wish to thank the organisers and participants of this event, especially Prof. A. Griffiths (University of Queensland), Prof. V. Hoffmann (ETH), Prof. P. Bansal (University of Western Ontario) and Ms. O. Deuber (University of Cologne) for their valuable comments. We also express our gratitude to the Graduate School of the Environment of Macquarie University for the support in this project.
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Firsova, A., Taplin, R. A Review of Kyoto Protocol Adoption in Russia: Joint Implementation in Focus. Transit Stud Rev 15, 480–498 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-008-0027-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11300-008-0027-0