Russia conditionally supports new climate deal
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Russia is willing to join a new agreement on climate change on two crucial conditions, said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month is expected to negotiate over a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, parts of which will expire in 2012.
After talks with his visiting Danish counterpart Lars Rasmussen here on Monday, Putin said: "Yes, we are ready to do this. But we believe it necessary to observe at least two issues."
"Everyone without exception must sign this document, otherwise it would be deprived of all sense. Russia will also be insisting that it fully accounts for the capacity of Russian forests to absorb hydrocarbon gas, something that was not done in full volume in the Kyoto protocol," he said.
Acknowledging that Denmark's consent to the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline has helped enhance ties with Russia, Putin also said at the press conference that the volume of natural gas deliveries to Denmark via Nord Stream could later be tripled to three billion cubic meters a year.
"The commissioning of Nord Stream will secure long-term gas supplies to Denmark. This will be at least one billion cubic meters of gas per year ... Subsequently this quantity could be tripled for Denmark," the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying.
Meanwhile he again urged the European Union (EU) to financially help Ukraine pay for Russian gas deliveries, and hoped that Ukraine would commit to the signed contracts.
"We hope the commitments will be implemented in future as well," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as telling reporters.
The Russian Prime Minister in a telephone conversation on Sunday warned his Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt, rotating EU president that Ukraine might again have difficulty paying for Russian natural gas.
He urged EU attention to possible problems in Ukraine's payment for Russian gas, and the possible recurrence of problems in Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine.
Russia supplies a quarter of EU's gas needs, with 80 percent of it pumped through Ukrainian pipelines. The energy supplier cut off gas shipments to Ukraine for nearly two weeks in January over disputes on pricing and transition fees.
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