INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEF

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005284802
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: June 24, 2015
• Document Release Date: May 27, 2011
• Case Number: F-2008-00831
• Publication Date: July 28, 1998

International Environmental Intelligence Brief
Articles
Page
Climate Change: Russia Wants Emissions Tradin for Hard
Currency
Ukraine's Environmental Challenges 4
First Global POPs Negotiations Conclude
Calendar
APPROVED FOR RELEASEL
DATE: 17-May-2011
Issue 98/7 28 July 1998
(b)(1)
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 Climate Change: Russia Wants Emissions
Trading for Hard Currency
Bilateral discussions with Russian officials on
climate change this month focused on
international emissions trading as a vehicle for
acquiring hard current
he financial potential drew the
Ministries of Economics and of Fuel and Energy
to the table along with the Environment
Minister, Danilov-Danil'yan.
- The Economics Ministry estimates
that, if it starts trading soon, Russia
could earn $18 billion by 2005 from
selling emissions allowances,
according to Russian press reports.
The Russians have not ignored
concerns about monitoring and
verifying Russian trades of emissions
allowances-especially while
uncertainties exist regarding their 1990
baseline emissions inventory and the
sequestration capacity of their forests.
Danilov-Danil'yan has suggested that
a sampling regime to verify emissions
trades would be less costly than
attaching an environmental sensor to
every Russian smokestac
- The Russians see emissions trading as
a way to raise capital for improving
the efficiency and reducing the
emissions of electric power plants.
Russia at Kyoto pledged zero emissions
growth from its 1990 emissions baseline and
estimates its current emissions to be 30
percent below that target--largely because
of its reduced industrial production.
France, Germany, and the UK do not argue
with that estimate but criticize Russia for
using emissions trading to avoid having to
take additional domestic ste s to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions
The $18 billion earnings estimate assumes a
price of $15 per metric ton for the 200 million
tons that
Moscow will have available annually
for trading. The estimate seems unrealistic
because no one knows what price Russian
carbon dioxide will bring on the yet-to-be-
established market, and some potential buyers
are skeptical that Russia will be able to verify
that it possesses the emissions allowances
offered for sale
Russia's effort to derive hard currency from
emissions trading are consistent with its
ongoing moves to encourage Japan to subsidize
emissions-reducing projects. Tokyo has moved
swiftly since the Kyoto meeting to engage
Russia in joint projects to earn credit against
Tokyo's 6 percent emissions reduction target.
Premier Kiriyenko and outgoing
Japanese Trade Minister Horiuchi in
mid-July fleshed out an earlier
agreement by President Yel'tsin and
former Prime Minister Hashimoto for
Japan to invest some $7 million to
plug methane leaks from Gazprom's
natural gas transmission system and to
reduce the carbon dioxide output at
coal-burning power plants in Russia,
according to press reports.
The deal is part of a larger investment
program that Japan launched with
Russia in January to inspect the
Gazprom system.
 Ukraine's Environmental Challenges
Ukraine faces formidable ecological challenges
despite the reduction in industrial air and water
emissions resulting from its protracted
economic decline. Ukrainian environmental
officials and academicians blame economic
policies that largely exclude environmental
considerations, according to Ukrainian press
reports.
- In addition, resources for
environmental enforcement and
pollution control upgrades are scarce.
Ukraine's fresh water often is contaminated
with petroleum products, phenols, organic
substances, nitrogen compounds, and heavy
metals in amounts that exceed the government's
standards, according to Ukraine's Institute for
Strategic Studies. Air pollution-mainly carbon,
sulfur, and nitrous oxides-comes primarily from
energy, metal, and coal industries; Ukraine is
heavily industrialized and accounted for 25
percent of the former Soviet Union's GNP.
- The Ukrainian Minister of
Environmental Protection and Nuclear
Safety in January told Ukrainian media
that the inefficient use of natural
resources has resulted in a 10-percent
drop in the GNP
cite dire environmental and health effects of the
Chornobyl' accident, but for the most part their
Excluding Chornobyl' staff and rescue
personnel, the greatest effects have been to
infants and children who in 1986 consumed
radioiodine contaminated milk.
- In northern Ukraine and adjacent areas
of Belarus and Russia, 1,500 cases of
thyroid cancer and four known deaths
have occurred.
- Only about 50 out of the almost 200
staff and rescue workers who suffered
acute radiation sickness died
Kiev will continue to seek Western help for
Chornobyl'-related activities. Issues raised by
Ukrainian officials in bilateral meetings indicate
they put particular emphasis on Chornobyl'
despite the severity of their other environmental
problems
point will be several years away.
Kiev's position as a potential seller of
emissions permits tends to run counter to its
plan to import Caspian oil to ease its
dependence on Russian natural gas. If
Kiev's plan to shift to oil succeeds,
Ukraine's carbon emissions will rise
because oil is more carbon intensive,
leaving Ukraine with fewer permits to sell in
the emissions market. Nonetheless,
Ukraine's emissions are so far below-
perhaps by 30 percent-the Kyoto target of
not exceeding 1990 levels that the crunch
 ;';i.
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 First Global POPs Negotiations Conclude
Delegates to the first UNEP-sponsored
negotiations on a treaty to restrict hazardous
chemicals known as persistent organic
pollutants (POPs) that concluded in Montreal
this month agreed to limit an immediate ban
under the treaty to 12 POPs--the so-called "dirty
dozen" including DDT and PCBs-and created a
Criteria Experts Group to examine
implementation procedures. The heated debate
among the 92 participating countries highlighted
lingering differences over how broad the ban
should be and suggests that negotiators will be
hard pressed to devise and agreement that will
make controls binding without placing so many
restrictions on producing states-especially
developing countries--that they do not sin or
comply with the treaty
Momentum to ban POPs has been building since
the 1970s when most industrialized countries
and some LDCs began restricting their use. In
June, more than 30 UN Economic Commission
for Europe members--including the US-agreed
to ban 16 POPs, and some EU members such as
Denmark have implemented much broader bans.
- Under pressure from the US, Japan,
Canada, and some LDCs, however,
Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and
other EU countries in Montreal
dropped their insistence that the global
treaty be an open-ended accord
covering all dangerous chemicals.
Nonetheless, in the run-up to the second
negotiating session in February 1999, some EU
countries may renew their push for a broader
treaty and a flexible mechanism to evaluate and
add new chemicals citing their domestic
standards.
Large.LDCs with a stake in POPs production
and trade such as China and India are concerned
about the effects an export ban would have on
their economies and are insisting they cannot
afford to switch to alternative chemicals without
financial and technical assistance
- Russia in May publicly disclosed that,
despite earlier assurances that it had
ceased new PCB production, it still
manufactures and uses PCBs in
electrical transformers; several north
European countries have expressed
concern that these PCBs will be
released into the environment and not
- The UK, for one, agreed with the US
that delegates should create a
transparent, science based regime for
selecting additional chemicals to avoid
indiscriminate bans and regulatory
chokeholds on the multibillion dollar
global trade in chemicals
be disposed of properly
undertaking full risk assessments
Many multinational chemical firms also do not
want a broad treaty that would hurt their
businesses. European Chemical Industry
Council (CEFIC) officials say they were
concerned that countries will add chemicals to
the list of restricted substances without
 Persistent Organic Pollutants
A global POPS treaty would build on several existing regional and bilateral efforts to control the release
of the most dangerous chemicals. The Montreal talks will focus on the so-called "dirty dozen," a group
of 12 pesticides and industrial chemicals including aldrin, chlordane, DDT, endrin, heptachlor,
hexachlorobenzene, lindane, mirex, toxaphene, PCBs, dioxins and fin-ans. These chemicals are mostly
synthetic organochlorines that persist for long periods, are bio-accumulative, and travel long distances,
and are hazardous to human health.
Although exact figures for global production of chlorine-based synthetic chemicals are elusive, industry
experts estimate some 15,000 of the 100,000 or so synthetic chemicals traded globally for use in plastics,
wood and paper processing, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and industrial applications--worth more than
$200 billion to the US alone--are persistent organic pollutants. Many environmentalists warn that unless
all countries agree to prohibit the use of POPs, even those that have banned POPs will be exposed to
them through chemical residues on imported fish, produce, and other goods. Moreover, the high cost of
some of the safer alternative chemicals and the incomplete inventory of stockpiled POPs globally may
precipitate a black market in some banned pesticides for farmers seeking cheaper substances such as
DD
 In Brief
Japanese media say Tokyo has formulated a proposal to penalize
countries that oversell their emissions quotas under the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan may be tying to accommodate the EU, which opposes unrestricted
emissions trading because of concern about Russia overselling. The
Japanese proposal would not, however, place limits on buyers because
Tokyo anticipates that it will have to buy emissions to meet its reduction
target.
 Selected International Environment-Related Meetings
3-4 August
17-28 August
24 August-4 September
24 August-4 September
30 August -2 September
1-3 September
1- 9 September
21 September-i October
28 September-5 October
26-2i October
2-13 November
4-6 November
12-18 November
17-24 November
1998 Lisbon World Exposition (EXPO '98)
Theme: The Oceans, a Heritage for
the Future.
Workshop on Kyoto Protocol
Clean Development Mechanism
Negotiating Session on the
Biosafety Protocol
Second Conference of Parties to the
Convention to Combat Desertification
Fourth International Conference on
Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies
APEC Officials Meeting
on Environment
FAO Panel of Experts Meeting on
Pesticides and Residues
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change Plenary
OECD Conference on Eco-Labeling
FAO Meeting on Sustainable Fisheries
Fourth Conference of Parties to the
Climate Change Convention
Global Environment Facility
Council Meeting
APEC Ministerial and Reads
of State Meeting
Tenth Conference of Parties to the
Montreal Protocol
Manila
Montreal
Geneva
Dakar
Interlaken
Singapore
Berlin
Rome
Buenos Aires
Washington
Kuala Lumpur
Cairo
Sec