Bellona nuclear digest. May 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
Publish date: June 30, 2005
News
Orenburgenergo and Khabarovskenergo, subsidiaries of the national electricity giant Unified Energy Systems (UES), sold some of their greenhouse emission quotas to the Danish Environment Protection Agency for more than EUR 20 million, RIA Novosti reported.
The electricity companies are going to invest the money into converting two coal-fuelled power plants to natural gas, which is expected to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Analysts say Russia has managed to negotiate a good deal: The 5.5 to 6 euros per metric ton of greenhouse gas is an average European price. Critics warned, however, that Russia might soon wish it had not sold its quotas because an anticipated rise in industrial activity would raise emissions accordingly, narrowing the safety gap between Russia’s Soviet-time high quotas and real emissions.
Academician Yury Izrael, head of the Institute for Global Climate and Ecology, had said previously: “We might get $5 per metric ton of carbon dioxide now but later we will have to invest $150 to $160 per ton in new [emission-saving] technologies.”
Other experts, however, welcome the current price as a great success for the first deal. Negotiations had started at a mere 3 to 4 euros per metric ton, they said because Russia had failed to adopt laws regulating the quota trade.
“UES, nonetheless, managed to sell the quotas at a market price,” said Andrei Kokorin, head of the World Wildlife Fund’s Climate and Energy Program. “The government did not give any state guarantees on the deal, which means that the Danes will assume all the related risks.”
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
But it’s unlikely to impact emissions from shipping along the Northern Sea Route.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
The following op-ed, written by Bellona’s Charles Digges, originally appeared in The Moscow Times. In recent months, the Russian nuclear in...