Bureaucracy curbs greenhouse gas emission reductions
Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper mill is one of 38 Russian companies waiting for the authorities’ approval to sell carbon credits that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions with 1 million tons a year.
Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper mill, one of the biggest in the country, raised about 1.5 million EUR over six years by voluntarily cutting its carbon dioxide emissions, Moscow Times reports. When Russia signed up to the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the rules changed, and the paper mill has not been rewarded with even a euro for its efforts to reduce pollution since 2007.
Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper mill has installed efficient equipment to produce heat from the combustion of its biomass waste. The compnay earned 1.5 million EUR from 2001 to 2007 by selling emission reduction units on the carbon market outside of the Kyoto procedure. The mill estimates that it could earn an additional 12 million EUR from 2008 to 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol ends.
The company is one of 38 that are waiting for the government to approve projects that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 1 million tons a year and raise some 1.5 billion EUR on the international carbon market.
The technical parameters for Russia’s participation are in place, but the program appears to be stuck in the pipeline of the Economic Development Ministry, the government body designated with overseeing implementation. The planned buyer of the Arkhangelsk mill’s reductions backed out this spring after waiting for more than a year.
