News
Publish date: November 15, 2006
News
The United States and Europe wish to impose sanctions against Iran to punish it for its nuclear programme and refusal to stop enriching uranium.
But Russia has deep nuclear industry investments in Iran and is building it an $800 m. 1,000 megawatt reactor in the port town of Bushehr which is set to come online in a year. Russia has thus far demanded that all language pertaining to Bushehr be stricken from the draft sanctions.
Diplomats reported no progress in Wednesday meetings, which were hoped to lead to a compromise.
"Well there is movement, but is it a progress movement or some other movement, I cannot tell," said Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin,, as quoted by Reuters, adding there had been "a rather intense exchange of opinion.
"We had an exchange of views across the range of issues," John Bolton, US Ambassador to the U said after a sixth round of talks among six nations. "I don’t know that we’ve accomplished anything I would describe as progress today, but we did talk about a number of issues."
The West believes Iran’s uranium enrichment work is a cover for bomb-making while Tehran says it is for peaceful uses. Though Russia stands by what it says is Iran’s right to have a nuclear programme for energy purposes, it stands by its western counterparts in demanding that the country cease uranium enrichment.
The draft resolution for sanctions drawn up by Britain, France and Germany and backed by Washington demands nations prevent the sale or supply of equipment, technology or financing that would contribute to Iran’s nuclear or ballistic missile programmes.
Russia, backed by China, has submitted amendments cutting roughly half of the European draft and leaves nations to decide which items Iran can buy.
Senior foreign office officials from the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia had a telephone conference call on Iran on Wednesday but apparently failed to break the impasse, Churkin said, according to Reuters.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.