The Activities of the Russian Academy of Science's Council Concerning the Kyoto Protocol and Discussions Around Climate Change

Abstract

Book DOI: 10.21467/abstracts.93 atmosphere made it possible to increase the yields of major crops and feed an additional 1 billion people, but this fact was outweighed by the negative aspects of anthropogenic warming. Andrei Illarionov, who was present at the meeting, raised the question of the connection between the rate of carbon dioxide emissions and the rate of economic growth. He expressed the opinion that since human civilization is based on the consumption of hydrocarbons, the adoption of the Kyoto agreements could have a negative impact on Russian economy. He regarded the Kyoto agreement as discriminatory and not universal, since the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions like the USA, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Korea, as well as a number of developing countries, did not impose any restrictions on themselves. According to Andrei Illarionov, scientists should answer the main question: to what extent is the Kyoto Protocol justified and whether it should be ratified, and if not ratify, then what other global problems should be brought to the attention of the world community? On May 17, 2004, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yury Osipov outlined his position on the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol by Vladimir Putin. Yury Osipov noted that during the discussion, scientists had the opinion that the Kyoto Protocol does not have a scientific basis and is not effective for achieving the final goal of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. If Russia would ratify the Kyoto Protocol, then it would be impossible for its economy to double the GDP. In 2012, the seminar participants again came to a negative conclusion about Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. According to the scientists, achieving the objectives of the protocol would require reducing the emission of greenhouse gases over large limits and over the centuries, not decades. The development of renewable energy and the use of biofuels also could not give a tangible effect. Yuri Izrael proposed to influence the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and introducing an additional amount of aerosols into the stratosphere. The reasons for such a negative attitude of scientists towards the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and their scientific discussion during the discussion are in the focus of my research.