Yesterday at CoP-8, Russia came up with a clear demand for compensation. Alexander Kosarikov, deputy chairperson, Committee of Ecology, State Duma of Russia (Lower House of Parliament), said that a major part of the world’s forests and freshwater existed in Russia. These had to be, in the interests of the world’s ecology and climate change mitigation, protected. Kosarikov said Russia was doing exactly that, but was also shelling out US $2 million a year. It was getting too expensive, he seemed to imply. So couldn’t the world get together and put up some money? Not as charity, mind you. But as compensation. "A part of the sovereign debt could be considered through means such as debt-swaps and other mechanisms," Kosarikov said.

The storm’s been brewing in the climate change tea cup for quite a while now. First, everybody thought that the protocol would be ratified by the year 2000. That didn’t happen. Then everybody smacked their lips and said: wait till WSSD (September 2002); it will happen. It didn’t. That’s when the milk got a little sour, and the brew began to swirl. With countries like Canada and Australia wriggling out of ratification pressures (how do they manage it?), Russia swung into focus. She could be put under pressure, given her current economic weakness and lack of political leverage in international affairs. Given this context, Kosarikov’s statement is clearly an attempt to come out trumps in a bad situation.

It’s also an attempt to parry away the ratification question. Kosarikov needs to do that, for its not going to be easy for Russia to ratify the protocol. Not every parliamentarian in the 9 parties that comprise the Russian Parliament today supports such a move. The process has begun, but leaders are worried about risks –– especially in the energy sector. However, Kosarikov says that the essence of the protocol needs to be explained to them, as also the fact that there’s more in it for Russia than the legislators think.