Russia Has Made the First Step towards the Kyoto Protocol Ratification

It finally happened. On September 30, 2004 the Russian Federation Government took an official decision to direct the federal law draft about the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ratification to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly. Speaking about the decision it would be more correct to say that per se it was taken some time earlier, namely on September 11 in Novo-Ogaryevo at the meeting of President Vladimir Putin with the members of the Russian Federation Security Council. The decision resulted in a specified order of the President to the Government to precipitate the Kyoto Protocol ratification. It must be said that the order was put into effect in good faith and quite efficiently. All visas from Ministries and Departments were received and the documents agreed for the historical meeting of the Government. Thus the first, the initial step on the way to the Kyoto Protocol ratification has been made. With all this the comments of ministers and other high-ranking Russian officials on the occasion of the decision taken by the Government - to ratify the Kyoto Protocol - are rather interesting and demonstrative. Practically everyone who expressed their opinions, perhaps, with the exception of the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, declared how disadvantageous for Russia this international agreement was, that it lacked sufficient scientific grounds etcetera etcetera. Still they did make the resolve. The political will of the President who gained a far better understanding of the problem than his ministers might have become the determinative.

The fact that along with the approval of the Federal Law on ratification the Government formulated fairly intelligible charging points of decision related to the arrangement of negotiations with the European Union representatives concerning the forming of joint greenhouse emission quota trading system, and also the elaboration of the national greenhouse emission regulation system in the Russian Federation. At that the forementioned charges must be carried out by the respective ministries and departments within the three proximate months. This circumstance evokes the feeling of a wary optimism about the serious intentions of the Russian Government in relation to the performing of the obligations on the Kyoto Protocol.

Yes, the first step is made. The next is the Duma. Unpredictable in its willingness to support the initiatives of the President. It's obvious that if there is a clear signal from the Administration about the necessity of the steepest ratification then the Duma is likely to react properly, but if there is no such a signal? What then? How long and, chiefly, to what advantage will the delegates be passing the law on the Kyoto Protocol ratification? There are chances, as the saying goes. In any case however we are in the prospect of difficult and laborious work with the deputy corps. More to it the beginning of the negotiations on the obligations of the countries after the year 2012 lies ahead. And of course here the whole set of intellectual and any other kind of potential of both Government and State Duma, and also of social organizations will be required.

Sergey KURAEV, Editor-in-Chief of the bulletin "International Environmental Cooperation"

The Second Preparatory Meeting to the EECCA Environment Ministers' Conference

On September 2-3, 2004 the 2nd Meeting devoted to the preparation for the Conference of the environment ministers of the EECCA countries and their partners took place in Chisinau (Moldova). The aim of the Meeting was to discuss and co-ordinate basic documents of the forthcoming Conference which is to be held on October 20-23 in Tbilisi.

Representatives of the EECCA countries, foreign and international organizations, Regional Environmental Centres and non-governmental organizations participated in the Meeting.

The members of the Meeting discussed and fixed the agenda for the upcoming Ministerial Conference and talked over a series of documents prepared by the Special Working Group on the environmental action programme. Primary work was concentrated on the document draft concerning the EECCA environmental priorities and on the mainline report "The Assessment of the Environmental Partnership Strategy Realization for the EECCA Countries".

The Forum "Environmental Culture and Information for Sustainable Development"

On September 21-23 the International Forum "Environmnetal Culture and Information in the Interests of Sustainable Development" was held in Bryansk, becoming the first international event in the framework of the UNESCO Programme "Information for All" concerning the problems of the environmental information access and forming of the environmental culture in the interests of sustainable development. The event was organized by the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, administration of the Bryansk Region, "Information for All" Programme Russian Committee and Bryansk Regional Scientific Universal Tyutchev Library with the participation of the Russian Federation Ministry of Natural Resources, several Russian libraries, the Russian Federation UNESCO Committee, UNESCO Moscow Bureau and non-commercial fund "Pushkin Library". More that 200 representatives of all state power branches, local governments, educational, scientific, culture institutions, environmental funds, Azerbaijan, Byelorussia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine business took part in the Forum. International organizations were represented by the UN, UNESCO, UNICEF, CIS institutions and also by the Russian Regional Environmental Centre.

The aim of the Forum was to assist international comprehension of various aspects of environmental information access system creation and development, of environmental culture forming with the use of information and communication technologies, elaboration of settled positions concerning environmental information access, discussion of environmental education questions (in the first place for children and youth), creation of the environmental information resources on the local level with connection to the local traditions, knowledge and culture in the sphere of environmental protection, use and development of international standards in the field of environmental information access and promotion of the net interaction in the forementioned sphere, and also the forming of the inter-sectoral space.

The Forum program included plenary, sectional (also traveling) meetings, round tables, discussion platforms, "Ecology and Environment Use in the Bryansk Region" exhibition. The participants were provided with: the book "Environmental Information Access (legal aspects)", UNESCO document "Policy Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Governmental Public Domain Information" and the Russia Federal Law draft "The Guarantee of the Access to the Information about the State Body and Local Government Activity". The first in Russia regional resource environmental information access centre in Bryansk and municipal information and environmental centres in Novozybkov and Unecha were opened in the course the Forum.

Great attention at the Forum was drawn to the problem of forming of legal awareness, judicial practice, civil position and public opinion on the environmental problems. It is not surprising that a great interest of the Forum participants was caused by the presentation by the Russian Regional Environmental Centre "Why Russia Needs the Aarhus Convention" devoted to the UN European Economic Commission Convention on the Information Access, to the public participation in the decision making process and to access to the administration of justice on the questions related to environment.

Up to the present moment practically all international environmental agreements have the provisions on public awareness, right to the information access and involvement of population in the environmental problem solution and movement on the path to sustainable development, and the principles and regulations of the Aarhus Convention appreciably influence the policy of the intergovernmental financial organizations. By September of 2004 the Convention is signed and ratified by all EECCA countries (except for Russia and Uzbekistan) and also signed by all members of European Union apart from Slovakia and by the European Community itself in the person of the European Commission and ratified by 15 EU states. States of Asia, Africa and Latin America evince more and more intense interest to the document, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calling the Convention "regional in coverage but global in meaning" supports the idea of giving the world-wide nature to the document.

Moreover, implementation of the Aarhus principles in Russia would allow to struggle with corruption effectively, to improve the process of efficient and adequate environmentally crucial decision making. For Russian producers the joining of Russia to the Aarhus Convention would mean the upswing of investment attractiveness in the eyes of the foreign investors in connection with the reduction of the image risks, what is especially important from the moment when European Union has pretty closely come to the Russian borders. During the Forum not only participants from the non-governmental organizations but also the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications representatives showed their interest to the Aarhus Convention, and between the Russian Committee of the "Information for All" Programme, UN Information Centre in Moscow and Russian Regional Environmental Centre there was achieved an agreement about the development of collaboration in the field of environmental information access dilatation in Russia.

In the final document the participants of the Forum noted that the right of the citizens for the favourable environment guaranteed by the article 42 of the Russian Constitution can be realized only on condition of the availability of the information about the state of environment, including that for the international community, the presence of the agreed international, regional and national legal policy concerning access to environmental information and justice on the environment questions, standing state environmental monitoring and opportune submission of environment pollution data, especially in the environmentally unfortunate territories, and the involvement in the environmental situation diagnosing processes of the large sections of the public, scientific and educational institutions and means of mass media not only for controlling but also for the environmental training of the population.

As the primary steps in this sphere the forum participants suggested that legal status of environmental information should be legislatively determined, the possibility should be discussed of screen time providing on the state TV and radio channels at the expense of the budgetary funds to broadcast programs devoted to the environment problems, and also that the organizations forming infrastructure of the unified net of the environmental information spreading, should be developed and supported.

Sustainable Development of Caspian Coastal Communities: Outcomes of the First and Perspectives of the Second Stage of the Small Grants Programme

In August Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) in cooperation with REC for Caucasus and Russian REC completed the estimation of the applications which came on the small grant programme contest "Sustainable Development of the Near-Caspian Communities". The programme is financed by the European Union and is being implemented in four countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan). Its major goal is to reduce and prevent the overuse of natural resources in the Caspian Sea Region by means of financing the project on the creation of alternative sources of the Near-Caspian community life sustenance that are more stable from the viewpoint of the Caspian Sea natural resource use. The total amount of the contestant applications is 262: 58 - from Azerbaijan, 37 - from Kazakhstan, from the Russian Federation - 115 and 52 from Turkmenistan.

12 applications received from Russia participated in the contest on the regional (intergovernmental) level, 93 - on national (Russian) level, 10 applications were rejected for formal reasons. Out of 105 applications accepted for the contest 58 ones were from the Dagestan Republic, 35 - from the Astrakhan Region, 12 from the Kalmykia Republic. Citizens of the Astrakhan Region Liman District (13 applications), Kalmykia Lagan District (11) and also the Dagestan Karabudakhkent (21), Novolaksk (10) and Kumtorkalinsk (7) districts displayed great activity.

Among the Russian applicants all basic social groups were represented. The majority of applications was filed from the commercial firms (31,4%) and individuals (26,6%). Approximately equal number of participants was in the categories "Farms, Agricultural Cooperative Societies and Collective Farms" (17,2%) and "Non-commercial Organizations, Associations, Funds" (15,2%). 9,6% of applications was filed by the local authorities and municipal enterprises. In the subject-matter of the projects there prevailed rural economy - 37 applications; consumer goods production (15 applications), eco-system restoration and social services (12 applications each), consulting (8), eco-education (7), tourism (5), waste control (4), micro-crediting (3), sustainable development and homecrafts (one application for each) were as well present.

Basic application mass in the category under 10000 Euro was filed by the private entrepreneurs and farmers. These applications were examined in the countries by the members of the national expert committees formed by the representatives of the environmental ministries, municipal governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), business and science. The meetings of the expert committees were held in the cities of Astrakhan', Atyrau, Baku and Turkmenbashi in the period from the 17th of July to the 18th of August of the year 2004.

Russian national expert committee recommended for financing 15 projects for the total sum of 100 thousand Euro: 6 projects from Dagestan, 5 - from the Astrakhan Region, 4 - from Kalmykia.

The projects with the sum of requested grant from 10000 to 25000 Euro were examined by the regional expert committee the meeting of which took place on August 3, 2004 in the CAREC in Almaty. The members of this expert committee included representatives of the Regional Consulting Group on the questions of littoral territory sustainable development, created within the framework of the Caspian Environmental Programme (CEP), independent expert and representative of the CEP Coordination Bureau from Teheran.

The observers, representatives of the IMC company rendering technical assistance in the programme, were present at all meetings. The specialists of this company also gave preliminary inference on the viability of projects implying in the process of realization the creation of new undertakings and profit gaining. One of 12 suggested Russian projects was supported.

In total (on the regional and national levels) 66 projects were elected to be financed, distributed grant pool amounted to 453.054 Euro. More than half the successful applicants are common dwellers of small settlements situated in the coastal zone of the Caspian Sea, private businessmen and farmers planning to start a small business on the grant money. Besides, five projects will be put into practice by the local authorities, sixteen - by the existing business structures and three - by the non-governmental organizations.

One third of the projects having won the grant will be fulfilled in the partnership of several organizations. Usually it is a partnership between a commercial structure and a municipal government or an NGO. Project realization is to be started from October-November of 2004.

The majority of the projects submitted for the contest corresponded with the themes of the alternative income sources for the local population. Projects on livestock raising, plant growing, poultry breeding, consumer goods production (CG) and social services for population, requiring different contribution volume and operation zone/range, were suggested. Besides, the projects connected with the ecosystem restoration, aquaculture, consulting and business-related training, eco-education and water use, were filed.

Topical priorities among the submitted projects were alloted as follows: workplace creation in the CG and foodstuff production sphere (18), livestock raising (9), plant growing (7), poultry breeding (5), aquaculture (4), eco-education (3) and water use(3)-related projects, supply of services to the population (4). The spheres of tourism, waste control, ecosystem restoration, consulting, fishery, bee-keeping received two approved projects each.

On the completion of the assessment procedures there was performed a brief analysis of major problems the applicants had faced while preparing the projects. Among the common mistakes the experts noted insufficient elaboration level of business plans in the commercial projects (calculation errors, excessive expectations concerning the expected profit, insufficient development of questions connected with price formation and production contribution). In the field of educational projects the main stress was often made on the creation of educational centre resource base in the cities to the prejudice of supply of mobile consulting and educational services to the rural population of littoral region the programme is oriented on. The applied projects on the local revolver funds creation (micro-crediting) demonstrated low elaboration degree of business plans relating to the fund recurrency, attraction of qualified stuff and compliance with the existing legislation. Moreover, the participants of the contest forgot to reflect in the project documentation the quantitative results of the project activity and didn't clearly reflect the benefits of other members of the community consequent to their project realization. In the waste control-connected projects the funds were often requested for one-time events, and, thereafter, such projects failed to display satisfactory steadiness level once the grant financing is finished.

In September 2004 CAREC announced application registration for the second, autumn contest on financing according to this programme. Applications for the autumn contest will be accepted till the 4th of November 2004. During the autumn contest these questions will be additionally discussed while consulting the applicants, and this allows to hope that many of those not receiving support in the first contest will be able to complete the projects basing on the presented comments.

As it was in the course of the spring contest, consultations on business planning and grant application preparing will be continued in autumn. Economic experts, attracted by the IMC company, and the REC personnel are going to hold additional classes in the population aggregates situated in the project zone, to clarify basic procedure changes and to suggest practical training on the elaboration of the project ideas.

Besides, the applicants will be granted the possibility to give the self-estimation of their project suggestions according to the level of the suggested activity impact on the environment, and to consider possible risks even on the preparatory stage of the project suggestions. The questionnaire for the fulfillment of this goal is already prepared by the IMC company and will be distributed among the would-be applicants and the winners of the first contest.

The Mobility Week - in Town without My Car

On September 16-22 Europe held what is called "a Mobility Week", under the slogan "Safe Streets for Children". This week that is already traditional has grown from the Car Free Day celebrated on September 22 by the 1100 towns of the world now and 117 million of their citizens.

The first Car Free Day was held in the year 1998 in France. The action wasn't popular then, only several country dwellers decided to abandon their cars at the call of authorities. In the year 2000 on the initiative by the European Union Commissioner for Environment Margot Wallstrom the Car Free Day became an All-European event. Up to the year 2002 the number of towns having joined the Day without Cars reached 431. In 2003 as much as 600 European countries urged their residents to remember the alternative modes of transportation, and in 2004 the action was also supported in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Ecuador, Israel and Thailand. Spain (203 towns), Austria (197) and Poland (108) became the leaders among the European countries.

City administrations of participating towns in various ways suggest that the citizens forget the cars for a while: abolish the passenger fare on public conveyances (as in Athens, Berlin and Rome), partly block the traffic off (as in Cracow, London, Madrid and Stockholm) or don't go beyond appeals hoping on the consciousness of their inhabitants. The Car Free Day objective is to remind to all those who use cars how prejudicial the latters are for the environment, and to stimulate the use of urban public transport.

On September 19 the Car Free Day was pioneered in Kiyv. Approximately one hundred Kievers assembled in the city centre, under the Nation Friendship Arc, and from there proceeded to work - riding their bicycles. One of the goals of the action was to change the attitude of the drivers to the cyclists. Also a series of thematic theatrical events was held in the Ukraine capital.

In Russia it was the Belgorod Region appearing as the Car Free Day pioneer. In compliance with the regional government instruction local authorities of regions and towns were recommended, where possible, to limit office and private motor transport locomotion except for the urgency cases. Exception was made for the cars catering for the population, and for the invalids. But enterprises and organizations working in nonstop operation and continuous cycle were bound to supply production facilities beforehand with the raw stuff, materials and equipment. On this day the results of the artwork competition "Automobile: a Friend or an Enemy?" were summed up in the secondary schools, state and municipal libraries of the region prepared for the Car Free Day topical exhibitions advocating healthy life-style. The experts of the region public health management advised that people change to the bicycles or walk afoot. To increase the popularity of the cycling transport Belgorod government called to organize bicycle rental agencies in towns, construct bicycle lanes and bicycle parking lots in the enterprises and institutions.

The appeal of the region governor Eugeny Savchenko and regional legislative assembly president Anatol Zelikov to the citizens of Belgorod said, in particular: "Among the numerous problems of the population life quality improvement there is a task to form a habitat favourable for the human to exist in. Vehicle prudential use can solve it to a considerable degree - their emission of the harmful substances to the free air amounts to 70% of the total emission and is constantly increasing." Belgorod authorities are going to hold Car Free Days every year.

The promise to hold the Car Free Day regularly beginning with the year 2005 came from Moscow Transport and Communication Department President Pavel Zlatin, too. Private transport is planned to be limited in the entry to the center of the city. According to Zlatin's opinion, "this is likely to promote the role boost of urban public transport, the development of which is one of the priority tasks for the authorities of the capital." The admission became an important victory of the environmental activists because earlier Moscow government preferred following the dead-end way of road network "local improvements" while radical rejuvenation of the megapolis transport policy is needed. 100-200 thousand cars a year accrue to the autopark of the Russian capital threatening to freeze the street traffic. 90% of harmful substance emission in the city falls to the share of motor transport, there is the augmentation in the pulmonary and cancer diseases among the population, death of green plantations, growth of noise pollution and accident victim number, the living space of man is turning into a big spontaneous parking. Attempt to solve the problem by construction of new roads leads solely to the increase of the car amount while European cities actively create "green belts", foot corridors and cycle track systems in the attempt to reduce the use of cars for the city driving. By the way, contrary to the prevalent opinion severe environment is not an obstacle to the use of a bicycle: Finnish city Oulu situated in 200 kilometers from the Polar Circle and most of the year covered by snow has the share of the bicycle in the perennial moving traffic no less that 25%. "Local improvements" drag the city closer to the transport collapse when urban development decision making based on the interests of the new-generation transport (comfortable, quick and safe) and not the private cars would allow to persuade many car owners voluntarily change to the trams, tube, buses and trolley-buses.

Unfortunately now the municipal urban traffic system in both Russian capitals, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, doesn't meet modern requirements what was clearly seen from the Car Free Day activities unofficially held by the environmental activists of these cities. Thus, competitions organized by the social institution "Environmental Initiative Centre" with the support of the "Running Town" project and the youth environmental organization "The Children of the Baltic Sea" took place in Saint Petersburg on September 26. The objective of the competitions was the promotion of the public transport and bicycle use in the city. Teams emulated in two categories: "Public transport" and "Bicycle". Their task was to visit 10 spots in the central and northern parts of the city.

The results of the competitions according to the Environmental Initiative Centre Council President Alexandr Fedorov displayed the deplorable state of the city public conveyances. The participants of the competitions not using the jitneys or pirates spent in average 5 hours on the rout of 50 kilometres length. Average time spent by the cyclists to cope with the same rout aggregated to 3 hours. This advantage of the bicycle was revealed in the rest-day when there is no traffic jam in the city. In the weekdays cyclists benefit even more.

Hyper-automobilization, however, is not a problem of megapolises only, it is a global problem. Motor transport destroys the atmosphere of the planet and is the cause of over 3000 men's death per day. Every second a new car appears in the world, and according to the frequency of reference in the advertising, cars lock a rather symbolic "prize ternary" standing in the third place after alcohol and tobacco.

None of the world cities managed to solve the traffic jam problem for good yet, but practice makes perfect, and the changes for the better are already visible. The experience of many countries which faced the problem of car glut before than we did would be surely useful in many fields beginning with the town-planning priorities and down to the driver culture on the road.