"Russia cannot ratify the protocol on the general terms and has to advance its own", head of the research group Russia and the Kyoto Protocol Anna Kashirova, Candidate of Economics, told RIA Novosti.
In her opinion, one of the terms should be the payment of compensations to Russia for the upkeep of forests and reforestation.
Russia's woods, making up over 24 percent of the world's, consume about 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. The Kyoto Protocol neglects this fact. "Meanwhile, most of the countries of the European Union "striving to joint the Kyoto Protocol cannot by their own flora consume at least what carbon dioxide they emit".
"It is, therefore, extremely disadvantageous for Russia not to take this into account and ratify the protocol on the general terms", believes the head of the research group.
To her, compensatory payments should be at least 100 percent of the gas consumption by Russian forests.
In addition, she thinks it necessary to provide for a strict premeditated volume of quotas to be bought from Russia - 5 billion dollars annually.
"Such investment injections will be vindicated. Only in these conditions can Russia introduce energy-saving industrial technologies, retool its outdated factories and bring in new plant and equipment", Kashirova thinks.
"If Russia does not stipulate, Russian forests will go on providing mankind with fresh air and Russia, in case the economic growth is on, will after some time have to buy quotas and in this way disrupt the natural mechanism", Kashirova said. "Such a situation is not in correspondence with Russia's real share".
The expert also said that the Kyoto Protocol has not gained scientific backing: the impact of carbon dioxide emission on global warming is yet unproved.
"Regrettably, there is no clear-cut procedure for calculating hothouse gas emission and it is yet unknown how Russian emission is to be assessed", Kashirova warns. She says "a discriminatory approach to calculating Russia's hothouse gas emission" is a possibility.
Commenting on the words of EU energy commissioner Layola de Palacio that the EU may abandon its Kyoto Protocol obligations in case Russia and the United States do not make up their mind, Kashirova said: "Without Russia's joining, the European Union cannot fulfil its obligations. This means we can advance our own terms. It think it would be wrong for Russia not to insist on its own".
