Scorecard summary:
Fulfilment of Rio Conference Commitment- Green
Current Government Position on Climate Change- Red
Per Capita CO2 Emissions-Red (14.11 metric tons per person in 1992)
National CO2 Emissions- Red (2,103 million metric tons in 1992)

OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Potentially a powerful player, very large emissions, achieved Rio target with political and economic restructuring , big questions remain on actions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the next century.

NATIONAL CLIMATE PROTECTION GOAL:
The Russian Federation has no specific climate protection target. However, mitigation measures are outlined in the "Decree on Sustainable Development" (1995) and in the official "Energy Strategy for Russia" (1995) - the latter also identifies the enormous short comings of domestic energy policies.

SPECIFIC FEATURES:
In contrast to other countries of the former group of centrally planned states in Eastern Europe, Russia (the former Soviet Union) has not yet seen a recovery since its political disintegration and economic collapse in 1990. This collapse resulted in a drastic decline of fossil fuel consumption and thus greenhouse gas emission reductions of almost one quarter. But Russia is still the world third largest emitter of CO2.

In 1990, Russia emitted about 2.3 billion tons of CO2 from fossil fuel use accounting for about 80 percent of all domestic greenhouse gases released. By 1994, CO2 emissions had declined to about 1.8 billion tons. As the GDP fell by an approximate of 40 percent in the same period, Russia is the only country in the world, where economic energy efficiency decreased by 20 percent through maintaining the highly energy intensive industrial sectors such as steel and iron production, petrochemicals and refineries on a lower production level. Today, primary energy consumption (expressed in tons of oil equivalents per unit GDP in US$) is 10 times higher than in France or Germany.

NEGATIVE FEATURES:
Russia's economy is based on exports of crude oil and natural gas. Due to an aging and antiquated supply system and inefficient monopolistic structures, crude oil exports declined by 50 percent to 120 million tons between 1988 and 1995. Exports of natural gas declined by about 30 percent to 180 billion m3 in the same period. No modernisation or introduction of market-based incentives of the energy sector has occurred. The doubling of electricity prices however would not result in energy savings but in disconections as no efficient alternatives are on the market and many poor households have no money. Nothing has been undertaken to decrease the high share of (8 percent) energy expenditure on overall industrial manufacturing (in the OECD this is about 2-3 percent). Though still rather low (4 percent) in domestic energy consumption, some officials want to boost the very unsafe nuclear power sector to decrease the carbon burden. They regard nuclear power to be "renewable".

Russia has one-third of worlds proven natural gas reserves, and there are large methane leaks. In 1995, there were also disastrous oil spills which accounted for losses of almost 20 billion US$ contributing to environmental and economic burdens.

POSITIVE FEATURES:
Official documents such as the "Energy Strategy for Russia" call for a tapping of the existing energy saving potential of about 45 percent of 1990 consumption. New studies reveal that by 2010 approximately 35 percent of CO2 emissions can be saved. Russia therefore has by far the highest short term energy efficiency potential of all countries and the "Strategy" recommends the domestic energy savings can be the source of future exports as fossil fuel resources are limited.

Sources: UNFCCC: FCCC/CP/1996/12/Add.2; Country Report: Russia, in: Independent NGO Evaluations of National Plans for Climate Change Mitigations - Central and Eastern Europe first review, Climate Action Network, Brussels, January 1995; BP Statistical Review of World Energy 1996; BP, London, June 1996. Bashmakov, I.: Mining Russian energy efficiency potentials, in: Time is a Slow Killer - Proceedings of the Berlin Seminar of German NGOs and Climate Network Europe, Bonn, December 1996; Energy Policies of the Russian Federation - 1995 Survey; 323 pages; IEA, OECD; Paris 1995.