The Foreign Ministry has supported Canada's decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol and reaffirmed that Moscow will not take new commitments. Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told Friday's briefing that the treaty does not cover all major polluters, and thus cannot help solve the climate crisis.
Commenting on Canada's decision in televised remarks Friday, Lukashevich said Russia considers that the Kyoto Protocol "is no longer effective." Canada last week pulled out of the agreement initially adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, to cut carbon emissions contributing to global warming. Its move dealt a blow to the treaty, which has not been formally renounced by any other country. The protocol requires some industrialized countries to slash emissions, but doesn't cover the world's largest polluters, China and the United States. Canada, Japan and Russia said last year that they would not accept new Kyoto commitments.
(AP, Bloomberg)