In the Russian Federation, there has been scant attention - if any - to the upcoming UN Climate Meeting. The Russian media and press have been exceedingly focused on the upcoming (December 2, 2007) Russian Duma elections. Nevertheless, the Russian government has paid some attention to climate change issues recently.

President Putin issued a decree on October 21, 2007 entitled “On holding in 2008 in the Russian Federation an International Year of Mother Earth” implementing the UN’s declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Mother Earth.

The Russian Federation’s UN Representative offered the country’s position in the UN climate change debate by statement issued in August of this year. In the Statement, we see two key features that we believe reveal the base of Russia’s position on climate change - (1) the fierce clinging (at least for the near future) to the Kyoto Protocol and (2) a call to avoid creating an apocalyptic mood by dramatizing the issue and instead rely on comprehensive scientific research by leading national and international bodies.

Although it is easy to blame the absence of official discourse on the Bali meeting on the upcoming election, our belief is that the issue would not carry a lot of weight with the average Russian anyway. Therefore, we believe the paucity of discussion itself in the media is actually a solid indicator that climate change issues are not a priority in Russia. Although the Statement expresses the Russian Government’s concerns for protecting the environment and studying climate change, one could nevertheless believe that Russia clings to the Kyoto Protocol largely for two reasons - (1) under the terms of the Protocol, Russia can show that it has sharply reduced carbon emissions (the Statement claims a 29.9% reduction between base year 1990 and 2004) and (2) wider implementation of credit trading under the Protocol would produce a solid economic benefit to Russia.

Arguably, these two features are not the result of environmental protection efforts by Russia but, rather, the consequence of the Russian industrial deterioration that was brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the Russian Federation states it will comply with the Protocol until it expires in 2012 but is silent about further plans. It is possible that Russia’s silence on further plans reflects a desire for flexibility in the future in light of the Russian government’s plans to return Russia to a position of industrial strength. We would note that when the Bali meeting is mentioned in the media it is usually more to reflect other countries’ positions - which are generally viewed skeptically - rather than to discuss Russia’s position. In our view, the call to avoid creating an apocalyptic mood and over-dramatization reflects Russia’s reluctance to panic regarding human induced climate change and preference to focus on comprehensive analysis of the issue over rushing into potentially ineffective action.

For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.