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Belarus gets access to Kyoto emissions trading

Kyoto Protocol signatory states gave their consent to including Belarus into the environmental treaty's Annex B at UN climate talks in Kenya earlier this month, giving the country access to emission quota trading.

As Vladimir Tarasenko, a departmental head with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, told BelaPAN, Belarus will now have to observe its commitments regarding carbon dioxide emissions. Since Belarus is allowed to emit more than it actually does, it can sell its unused emission quota to industrialized nations whose emission levels exceed the limits set by the treaty.

An amendment to the Kyoto Protocol formalizing Belarus' inclusion into Annex B has to be ratified by Minsk and at least 75 percent of the signatory states before the country is allowed to trade in greenhouse gas emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change requires industrialized countries to cut their combined greenhouse gas emissions to five percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. Each country that signed the protocol has its own specific target.

The Belarusian government committed itself to reducing its carbon emissions to five percent less than 1990 levels, which amounted to 120 million tons.

In 2004, Belarus' emissions reportedly totaled 60 million tons.