The US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, announced Thursday, President Donald trump, did not become for anybody a surprise, though, and provoked a storm of criticism and disappointment in the European Union, China and other countries. The reaction in Russia has been relatively calm.
Before the press Secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, in anticipation of the decision of trump, has clarified the Kremlin’s position in this context.
“President Vladimir Putin was in Paris and signed the Convention. Russia attaches (document) of great importance. However, of course, efficiency in the implementation of the Convention without the key participants will be difficult,” Interfax quoted Dmitry Peskov.
Assessment of Putin’s press Secretary, alternative Paris agreement “at the moment, no.”
In the same spirit on the sidelines of the St Petersburg economic forum said the head of Ministry of natural resources Sergey Donskoy.
“Even if the U.S. withdraws from the agreement, it will act. It has already started to operate, — the Minister noted. — In this agreement, there are different forces and stakeholders who will support this agreement.”
The Minister also referred to the Kyoto agreement, which was valid, despite the fact that USA have not signed it.
The head of the program “Climate and energy” WWF Russia Alexei Kokorin, head of the Russian service “voice of America” noted that in the long term environmental decision trump will have almost no influence.
“Because how will go the emissions (greenhouse gases) in the United States in the next four years during the reign of Donald trump, virtually sealed the country’s economy, he explained. Well, maybe the decrease (rate of emissions) will slow down a little — just a few percent. It is very small. That is, nature at global scale does not suffer”.
At the same time, Alexei Kokorin believes that the main impact as a result of the US withdrawal from the agreement will have on the most economically weak and vulnerable countries.
“They will receive about a quarter less money, given the U.S. share in the overall funding problems, he says. — And this is the money that was supposed to be spent on health care, agriculture and water management in a changing climate — what is commercial cannot be covered. So the situation in Africa, Asia and some countries in South America will be very heavy.”
The expert is confident that the Paris Convention will continue.
“All the other countries already have confirmed that they have agreed to cooperate on the developed in the framework of the agreement the principles, he added. — All will develop further, I hope, quite well. As for trump’s decision, it appears to be aimed at fulfilling campaign promises to withdraw from this agreement. All the rest is propaganda rhetoric.”
So I would not began to overestimate and over-dramatize this step, said the head of the program “Climate and energy” WWF.
Statement of Donald trump did not affect the course of trading on the US stock market, which ended on Thursday growth of quotations, mainly due to the statistics of the ADP Research Institute specializing in labour market, report “Vedomosti”. The Dow Jones by the end of trading rose by 135 points, the Nasdaq Composite index by 48 points, while the S&P500 for 18 points.
Head of the Department of countries and regions, head of the Center for German studies Institute of Europe Vladislav Belov comments in “Voice of America” stressed that it was an expected event.
“It is clear that the mechanisms of exit from the agreement will be discussed as mechanisms of financing for developing countries, he continued. — But, in principle, I think, the event itself has already been wagered in accordance with a recent statement by German Chancellor Merkel that the current administration of the US President is not a partner on whom we can confidently rely in the future, and that the EU must rely primarily on their own strength. The same goes for session of the NATO summit “the Big seven” where the parties are quite clearly positioned itself”.
So transatlantism in this case did not suffer deeply convinced Vladislav Belov, who believe that any split is not expected.
It is expected that Russia will consider ratification of the Paris agreement towards the end of this year after a thorough evaluation of its potential impact on the economy of the country.
