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.