BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20.07.2005 / 08:02 | 29

Belarus govt approves country's joining Kyoto protocol

MINSK-ASTANA. July 20. KAZINFORM. - The Belarussian government approved the country's joining the Kyoto protocol, a spokesman for Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection said in an interview with state-owned media outlets on Tuesday.

He said joining Kyoto was advantageous for Belarus. The document commits Minsk to keep the level of greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere at the level of 1990, Kazinform cites Itar-Tass.

It also gives it the opportunity to sell its unused emission quotas.

At present, the country only uses 50 percent of its quotas, so it will be able to sell the other half, the spokesman said.

Belarus' potential earnings from the sale of quotas may reach 325 million dollars to 1.75 billion dollars a year, given the current quota prices, which range between five to 25 dollars per tonne of greenhouse gases equivalent to CO2.

Minsk is planning to finalize the procedure of joining Kyoto before August 15. The issue is yet to be reviewed by the president, after which a final decision will be made on Belarus' ratifying the Protocol.

Director of the Institute for problems of use of natural resources and Ecology Vladimir Loginov said, Belarus' joining Kyoto will raise its political prestige and show the country's readiness to contribute to the efforts to resolve the climate change problem.

Source:

http://www.inform.kz/txt/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=131798