Russia is ready to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, raising its target from 15 percent just weeks ahead of a UN climate summit, the EU said Wednesday.
"With the Copenhagen conference starting in just over two weeks, we have made very important progress today and I very much welcome the signal from President Medvedev today of their proposed emissions reduction target of 20 to 25 percent," Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said.
Barroso was speaking to reporters at the close of a summit gathering European Union officials and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev himself did not comment on the new emissions target.
But a source in the Russian delegation quoted by Russian news agency Interfax confirmed Medvedev had announced the proposal during the summit talks.
The president hopes to meet the objective by improving Russian factories' "energy efficiency" by 40 percent, the source said.
By raising its target, Moscow brings itself in line with the European Union's goal and ups the pressure on other heavily-polluting industrialised and emerging countries, such as the United States and China.
The EU has vowed to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, raising the target to 30 percent in the event of an international agreement on the issue.
Hopes have faded recently that the December 7-18 UN talks in the Danish capital would result in a binding agreement on cutting emissions to follow on from the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
Source: AFP Global Edition
