OREANDA-NEWS. UC RUSAL, Sberbank, RUSNANO, RusHydro and Ingosstrakh have introduced an initiative to consolidate the efforts of Russian business to mitigate environmental impacts and help prevent climate change by creating the ‘Russian partnership to preserve the climate’. The initiative signals another step forward to introducing new climate agreements at the upcoming UN Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21).

COP21 presents an unprecedented opportunity to chart a new and sustainable direction in the continuing development of the global economy. The agreements that will be reached at COP21, succeeding the Kyoto Protocol, will have to set a new global strategy to minimize the anthropogenic impact on the environment for the carbon footprint.  

Scientific studies have left little space for doubt that global warming is a direct consequence of economic activity and development. Under current economic development scenarios for various regions and countries, global greenhouse gas emissions will only increase, leading to irreversible alterations to the climate balance.

Russian business representatives welcome the united efforts of all countries to try to mitigate the effects of climate change and have expressed their support of the UN’s climate initiatives and COP21. COP21 provides an opportunity to deliver a historic breakthrough on climate change.

“On behalf of the Russian companies undersigned, we call on all parties of the international negotiation process to execute a legally binding agreement that will allow countries to exercise joint responsibility in addressing climate change. In order to ensure that any agreement reached at COP21 is as effective as possible, we believe there is the need for a unified and generalized format of the obligations applicable for all countries; integrated mechanisms ensuring these obligations are delivered, as well as comprehensive monitoring of all countries’ compliance with the commitments undertaken. We believe it is now crucial to shift our collective focus as a business community to a low-carbon, ‘green’ economy, and we will strive to ensure our products comply with the highest environmental standards. We believe that a reduction in GHG emissions can be achieved through states working together to  introduce new, ground-breaking, environmentally friendly  technologies in the fields of energy efficiency, industrial application of nano-modification of base materials, and through a wider use of renewable energy,” according to a joint statement issued by Russian companies.

Concurrently, the statement stresses the importance of ensuring equal competitive conditions at a global level for all the participants of this process, as well as to introduce market based mechanisms encouraging businesses to transition to new production technologies. The “green” economy transition is impossible in the absence of a well-balanced system of market based and fiscal instruments which ensures that “green” investments are economically effective, both at the international and country levels.

RUSAL, Sberbank, RUSNANO, RusHydro and Ingosstrakh hope that this initiative will be broadly supported by other Russian companies.