Unofficial Translation
Comments of the Russian Federation on Annex II, Part One of the
ADP.2015.4.InformalNote Document (Tool)
27 August 2015
In order to implement an objective to establish an integral and balanced regime that
would provide for sustainable and effective solution to the issue of climate change
and systemically combine efforts, which were already undertaken in the framework
of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, with further steps to tackle global climate
change, aimed at a long-term perspective, a new international legal document
(agreement) should include in its text the following elements:
- definition of a collective contribution in reduction of the load on the climate
system within an agreed time frame (in a similar way to the KP);
- a principle of full account of greenhouse gas sources and sinks;
- to take into account activity in the sector of land use and forestry in fulfilling
commitments of the Parties regarding mitigation of climate change impacts,
as well as to determine fundamental principles of such an activity including
consideration of country circumstances and maintenance of incentives to
further develop the activity;
- section 16 on guiding principles should include forestry;
- clear definition of the base year for comprehensive and accurate assessment
of the course of implementation/achievement of the objectives and for
ensuring methodological connection through the UNFCCC – KP – new
agreement line;
- a time frame, established for fulfillment of emission reduction commitments;
- a guiding principle of review of the so called level of ambitions
(commitments): regarding the dynamic character of commitments (i.e.
continuous review of new objectives upon achieving the previous ones), the
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negotiating text should include a provision on increasing the scale of
commitments only upon achieving a previous target indicator;
- an agreed list of greenhouse gases (a basket of gases) covered by the
agreement and, if necessary, guiding principles regulating optional choice for
a Party to the agreement of a determined set of gases from the list and their
methodological connection with commitments of the Party;
- a guiding principle that implies bringing various types of declared
commitments to a common indicator (evaluation of a commitment in a CO2equivalent);
- a fundamental political approach providing for a truly collective character of
efforts to tackle global climate change without the obsolete differentiation of
the Parties;
- all types of commitments (related to emission reduction, finance, technology
transfer) should have an equal status – they should be reflected in the text of
the agreement or in annexes to the agreement or in a respective decision of
the Conference of the Parties.
In addition,
- in formulation of the objective of the future agreement, we deem it advisable
to address striving of the Parties to develop national economies on a lowcarbon basis but not to set a knowingly unachievable objective of one
hundred percent refusal of greenhouse gas emissions;
- in formulation of the global objective of the agreement expressed in a
numerable and controllable indicator, it is necessary to set a clear orienting
point of maintaining the global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius;
- regarding implementation of measures of capacity-building and financial and
technological support for mitigation and adaptation for countries in need, all
Parties capable of providing such assistance should participate in that process.